Any lingering doubt whether the NFL faces serious issues about guns and player safety was emphasized on this particular Sunday.
On the very day the Redskins held a pregame ceremony to mark the first anniversary of Pro Bowl safety Sean Taylor’s killing, their opponents, the Super Bowl champion Giants, were dealing with questions about star receiver Plaxico Burress accidentally shooting himself.
League policy bans guns from team facilities and also tells players not to have them – something which largely goes unheeded. At least two members of the Redskins purchased guns after Taylor was shot.
Several coaches, notably Tony Dungy of the Colts, constantly remind their players that they are targets.
“A lot of players, for whatever reason, feel the need to carry guns,” Giants president and CEO John Mara said before his team played Washington. “It’s a choice that they make. … We’d like to think most of them are licensed. We’re not sure that’s always the case.”
y. Lawyer Benjamin Brafman wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press that Burress will turn himself Monday morning and “will enter a plea of not guilty later that same day.”
Burress shot himself at a Manhattan nightclub Friday night and was released from a hospital early Saturday, the Giants said.
“As far as we know, he’s going to be OK,” general manager Jerry Reese said.
About an hour after Reese and Mara spoke in the press box at FedEx Field, the Redskins inducted Taylor into their Ring of Fame at the stadium. Taylor was shot Nov. 26, 2007, at his Miami-area home during a bungled robbery; he died the next day.
NFL teams use varying measures to protect their players on game days and away from the stadiums.
The St. Louis Rams, for example, have a former police chief in charge of players’ off-field behavior.
They use two security staff members at home games, one at each end of the players’ bench on the sideline. The team also uses additional personnel on game days hired by their stadium. For road games, the Rams use seven people to help with airport screening, hotel security and other matters.
The Ravens employ tight security at the hotel where they make players stay the before all games, whether at home in Baltimore or on the road.
“No one can go on the players’ floor, and players can’t leave the floor after curfew. We have our security stationed there,” said Kevin Byrne, the Ravens’ senior VP of public and community relations.
During the week, players are on their own when they leave the facility because there’s too many of them to follow around.
“Some players use their own security when they go out because of who they are, but we don’t have security with players when they go out,” Byrne said.
Packers spokesman Jeff Blumb said there are three people – two full-time and one part-time – who head up the organization’s security staff at Lambeau Field and work with players, but none of the staff specifically monitors off-field activities or “babysits” them.
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