Quotes and Comments: Trevor Smith on Plaxico Burress

“He’s a fundamentally good man who has used bad judgment and is going to pay a very, very severe penalty.”
— Benjamin Brafman, Plaxico Burress’ defense attorney.

First off, congratulations to Plaxico on making my fantasy prison team.

This is another fantastic example for young athletes of what not to do. An amazing talent and once super bowl hero, whose career will forever be tainted for something absolutely avoidable.

I am a Plaxico fan, something I couldn’t say about Michael Vick or Pacman Jones or any other players on that same fantasy lineup, so this one really upsets me.

That being said, it is not an overly severe penalty as implied by Brafman. Just because it wasn’t an intentional criminal act doesn’t negate it from being one altogether. “Bad judgment” is the key here. Sadly, his bad judgment will be (and needs to be) made an example of.

“Bad judgment” happens far too often, particularly in the NFL, to be a fluke. I hope that young players learn from these situations and don’t “accidentally” put themselves in any situation where they could have to stand before a judge.

I hope to see Plaxico back on the football field… but to what effect? I’d love to say that a receiver in his mid-thirties coming off two years of not playing football would have a good chance to make and impact in this league, but that’s wishful thinking.

So go ahead Plax, prove me wrong. If you come back and produce, I’ll trade you and you can join Ray Lewis on my fantasy ‘redeem yourself and make people forget about your past’ team.

— Trevor Smith, a copy editor and cartoonist for the Western Herald, is a senior majoring in journalism at WMU.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=8529

Posted by heraldstaff on Sep 23 2009. Filed under Opinion, Quotes & Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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