Why I like Plax

It's official. The world is safe again. For at least 20 months, we have locked up a horribly dangerous threat to society: Plaxico Burress.

The former New York Giants star wounded himself after his gun misfired outside a club in New York last November.

So do not worry, friends. He's in prison now. You can go to nightclubs in Manhattan and have no fear that someone will accidentally shoot himself in your presence.

But if you drive away from said night club and a different NFL star flashes his brights at you, be careful. That one might not end as happily.

Is it just me or is the judicial system in our country failing faster than Obamacare?

Parents are given an age-old piece of advice that "the punishment should fit the crime."

But lately, it seems like the length of punishment is not a direct reflection of the severity of the crime committed.

For example, Plaxico Burress just began a two-year prison sentence for accidentally shooting himself with a weapon that he shouldn't have been carrying in the first place.

But two years? Isn't the fact that Plax had to recover from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and miss the final four games of the 2008 NFL season punishment enough?

Maybe continue his suspension for the 2009 season and put him on a year or two of probation.

But a two-year prison sentence with a 20-month minimum time served if he has good behavior? That's more excessive than a lake cruise with the Vikings.

Look at all the other criminals we have running around the NFL.

Donte Stallworth spent 24 days of his 30-day sentence in prison for killing a person while driving drunk in Miami Beach. He'll miss the entire 2009 NFL season, yes, but he is not behind bars.

Neither is Michael Vick, whose prison sentence may have been a tad on the excessive side as well, but that's beside the point.

At least both of these guys served some time for their crimes.

What about the most infamous NFL star criminal?

O.J. Simpson is probably the best example in the case of wrong punishment.

The 1968 Heisman Trophy winner out of USC got away with (allegedly) murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, then published the details in his 2006 book titled, "If I Did It."

Of course, Simpson eventually got his judgment. Although the punishment he is currently serving may not fit the crime - robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary with a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree kidnapping with a deadly weapon, coercion with use of a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to commit a crime - actually, the nine-year prison sentence is probably a little short of what The Juice deserves.

So why do I like Plax so much?

Because he's paid his time, sat out his games and suffered his pain. Enough is enough.

Vick is back, Stallworth will eventually be back and even Terrell Owens continues to find homes around the NFL, so I believe there will be a place for Plax among the football stars when he returns.

Hey, he even thinks so.

"When I get out, I'll be 33, not 43," Burress said in an interview broadcast in August. "I'll still be able to run and catch. I'll still have the God-given ability to snag footballs; that's what I love to do. Of course I want to play again."

Plax will miss a couple years of playing catch with Eli Manning, but when he's released in the spring of 2011, he'll still be younger than Brett Favre was in both of his comebacks.

Two years from now, Favre will (maybe) be retired, leaving room for Plaxico to hook up with Manning once again for another Super Bowl thriller.

And that's why I love Plax - because he'll be back.