Earlier today the Free Plex chants returned courtesy of Giants Bulldozer/Running Back Brandon Jacobs. The Canadian Press is reporting that today at camp during lunch, Jacobs wore a shirt that read, “Free 17 Let Him Ball Out.” Not the shirt but you get the idea.
As we know, Plaxico Burress has been in jail for being part dumb and part unlucky. Dumb as in how do you shoot yourself? If isn’t bad enough you almost ended your life, he happened to be in NYC. Mayor/King of NYC Mike Bloomberg very sensitive to violent crime; teamed with NYPD and began crackdown on illegal weapons possessions. It was Plaxico’s luck that he was perfect target to show city that it was serious abou crime and had zero tolerance for anyone broke law. Two years is way too long.
So why is Brandon Jacobs clamoring for Plex to be released? Certainly they are friends, he claims to speak to him weekly. With the help of http://www.pro-football-reference.com I could try to answer why more fully. During Plaxico’s time with Giants which included Superbowl Championship it could be argued he was best player on the team. Always double teamed and still produced while being Eli Manning’s safety blanket. When he left, no one was affected more than Brandon Jacobs and run game. Since 11/16/08, Burress’s last game with Giants against Ravens(PS, Giants ran for 200+ yards on that vaunted rushing defense) Jacobs hasn’t run for more than 100 yds in a game, failed to reach 1000 yds last season, and has only scored 9TDs since. This is compared to 31 Tds before and consecutive 1000yd rushing seasons. Yea, I think he misses Burress. While Giants young receivers stepped up last year, you wouldn’t consider any always commanding a double team every play. This means the extra defender in the box to try to stuff the run. Its hard to run ball with lots of traffic especially when you are that big of a target.
So I see why BJ would love to see Plaxico out and maybe pitching for him to be back in Blue. It might mean less Black & Blues for him and more endzone green for him. Recent news is that Jacobs is looking good this training camp. We’ll see how he does this year. As for Plaxico, when he does get out he deserves a second chance whether with Giants or any NFL team. Man more than paid his dues. Of course there were recently some reports that Plaxico could possibly get out early via work release program and he might return to Giants. We will see where these reports will go, stay tuned.
Written by Jovan. You can follow him on twitter.