The Pittsburgh Steelers wooing of free agent ex-con Plaxico Burress kicked in to high gear earlier today. Evidently, he’s a really cheap date. First, Burress joined Mike Tomlin, Kevin Colbert, and Art Rooney for breakfast at the Saint Vincent College cafeteria. I bet they don’t even serve Mimosas.
A short time later, he joined Ben Roethlisberger, James Farrior and Hines Ward at the cool kids table for the team’s afternoon lunch. No doubt Big Ben repeated his oft-stated desire to have a big target for the passing game while Limas Sweed rocked back and forth weeping softly in the corner.
Rumors are flying fast and furious on twitter as PlaxWatch enters the home stretch. Word is Burress will make a final decision on Monday. The Steelers appear to be one of three finalists along with the San Francisco 49ers, who Plax will meet with on Sunday, and his former team, the Giants. Then again, he did spend almost twenty months in jail so perhaps he has other business in San Fran.
It’s difficult to handicap who will win the Burress sweepstakes as there are pluses and minuses in every team’s pitch. The Steelers are obviously the most prestigious organization, run by a charismatic head coach and led by superstar quarterback. Unfortunately, the Steelers are way over the salary cap as it is so Plax would have to pretty much sign for the league minimum. The Giants need receivers and have been his home for his last four seasons. The negatives there are they also have very little room under the cap and their coach is an asshole. The 49ers can afford to pay Plax but his cellmate in prison was probably a better quarterback than anyone on their roster.
I would love to see Plax back in the Black and Gold. I’m not a fan of the Flying Circus but if that’s what we’re stuck with, might as well pack as many clowns into the car as possible. At 33 and two years out of football, I have no idea how much Burress has left in the tank. The beauty of coming here, though, is he doesn’t need to be the man. If he can just be that big red zone threat the team has coveted, that would be more than enough for me.