Plaxico Burress (Template:PronEng) (born August 12, 1977 in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American football wide receiver for the National Football League's New York Giants. In February of 2008 he became a Super Bowl Champion.
 Plaxico Burress at the Giants Super Bowl champions parade in NYC. | |||||||||
| New York Giants | |||||||||
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| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | Michigan State | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 2000 / round: 1 / pick: 8 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics as of Week 17, 2007 | |||||||||
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Early life
Plaxico was named after his uncle [1] and graduated from Green Run High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia in 1996. He took a football season, presumably prep school year, at Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, VA.
College
While at Michigan State University, Burress set a Big Ten Conference single-season record by catching 65 passes in his first season of college football and also excelled on the special teams coverage units, using his outstanding leaping ability as a kick blocker. He ranks second in career touchdown catches (20), third in receptions (131) and fourth in receiving yards (2,155) in just two seasons at Michigan State University. He was an All-American second-team selection by SportsPage.com and an All-Big Ten Conference first-team pick in 1999. Burress broke his own school season-record that he set in 1998 (65 catches) with 66 receptions for 1,142 yards (17.3 avg) and 12 touchdowns. He established Spartans single-season record 12 touchdown receptions, eclipsing the previous record of eight that Burress shared (1998) with Andre Rison (1988) and Bob Carey (1949). He forced two fumbles, recovered one fumble and registered 7 tackles (5 solos) on special teams. Burress then set a school record with 255 yards receiving on 10 receptions versus the University of Michigan. He finally closed out his career with a school-record 13 receptions for 185 yards and three touchdowns versus the University of Florida in the Citrus Bowl. He also broke the single-game record of 12 receptions set by tight end Mitch Lyons in 1992. Burress was an All-Big Ten Conference first-team selection in 1998 by The Sports Network and earned second-team accolades from the league's media. He shared Spartan Outstanding Underclass Back Award honors with tailback Sedrick Irvin and wide receiver Gari Scott. Started all year at split end and established a school season-record with 65 receptions, topping the previous mark of 60 catches by Courtney Hawkins in 1989. He gained more than 100 yards receiving in four contests and is ranked third in the conference with an average of 84.4 yards and fifth with an average of 5.4 catches-per-game. He recorded six solo tackles and forced a fumble on special teams. He attended Fork Union Military Academy in 1996 and caught 33 passes for 807 yards (24.5 avg.) and 12 touchdowns.
Pro career
Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Burress in the first round (8 pick overall) of the 2000 draft. In his second year he broke the 1000 yard barrier while scoring 6 touchdowns. In 2002 he had his highest output with 1325 yards [2].
New York Giants
2005
On January 23, 2005, after the playoff defeat, Burress announced his intentions to leave the Steelers. On March 17, 2005, he signed a six-year, $25 million contract with the New York Giants. The signing came after both the Giants and Burress's agent broke off negotiations, saying there was no deal to be reached.
As a receiver, Burress is renowned for his exceptional size (6'5 and 231lbs) and leaping ability. He has consistently shown that he can go up for the ball and pull in a catch. One-handed grabs are not uncommon for Burress . His one weakness is ball security as he has a propensity to not secure the ball, leaving himself exposed to strip attempts by defenders. Route discipline is another issue, as Burress may not always be where his quarterback thinks he will be, but Burress has worked with Eli Manning to improve their coordination and non-verbal communication.
Burress did well in his first season in New York. With up and coming quarterback Eli Manning, Burress caught 76 passes for 1,214 yards. He helped the New York Giants to claim the division title only to be blanked in the playoff wild card game 23-0 by the Carolina Panthers who went on to the NFC Championship Game. Burress did not attend the Giants team meeting following their playoff loss to the Panthers in January 2006 drawing criticism from coach Tom Coughlin.
2006
In 2006 season Burress managed career high in touchdowns with 10, but fell short of the 1000 yard marker, appearing in only 15 games, and struggling with a groin injury for much of the year. The Giants dropped 6 of their last 8 and fell in the NFC Wild Card playoffs to NFC East champion Philadelphia Eagles 23-20. Burress had a touchdown catch on the opening drive,
2007
In 2007, Burress was the Giants top receiver with 70 receptions for 1,025 yards. He also set a franchise playoff record in the NFC title game with 11 receptions for 154 yards as the Giants advanced to Super Bowl XLII. On January 30, he announced a prediction for the outcome of the Super Bowl: The Giants winning 23-17.
Super Bowl XLII
In Super Bowl XLII, he caught the game-winning pass that made the score 17-14 in the Giants favor. He gained some measure of "Super Bowl legend" by predicting a Giants win, and by further saying that the Patriots would be beaten by the score 23-17; to this the Patriots quarterback Tom Brady scoffed at the idea that the Patriots would "only" score 17 points. As it turned out they actually scored less.[3]
Personal
Burress is the son of the late Vicki Burress and has two brothers, Ricardo and Carlos. He married Tiffany Glenn in July 2005. They have one child, a son, Elijah, who was born January 13th, 2007. He now resides in Totowa, New Jersey.
Lil Wayne predicted Plaxico's 2008 success in his song "Outstanding". At the very end of the song, Lil Wayne says the line: "Red Giants Jersey if you know what I mean, Give me Plaxico Burress, the number seventeen."
Burress is represented by agent Drew Rosenhaus.
See also
References
- ^ AOL Sports interview
- ^ http://www.databasefootball.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=BURREPLA01
- ^ Ashdown, John (2008-02-04). "New England Patriots 14-17 New York Giants". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-02-27.
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