Giants punish Burress for shooting incident

Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress has been fined and suspended for four games by the New York Giants for accidentally shooting himself at the weekend.

The New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has been given a four game ban.

Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress has been fined and suspended for four games - the rest of the NFL regular season - by the New York Giants for accidentally shooting himself at the weekend. The team also placed him on the reserve non-football injury list, which means the wide receiver cannot come back for the play-offs, either. Burress was punished on Tuesday, a day after he was charged with illegal weapons possession, which carries a penalty of three and a half to 15 years in prison. He is due back in court on March 31.

Burress met individually with the Giants president John Mara, general manager Jerry Reese and head coach Tom Coughlin. He left for a medical test and returned in the afternoon for another brief session with officials. Even as they suspended him for conduct detrimental to the team, the Giants officials made conciliatory statements about Burress, who caught the winning touchdown pass that gave the Giants a 17-14 Super Bowl win over New England in February.

"As we have said since Saturday morning, our concern is for Plaxico's health and well-being," Mara said. "This is an important time for him to take care of his body and heal up and also deal with the very serious legal consequences and other issues in his life. When I spoke with Plaxico he expressed great remorse for letting down his teammates." Neither Burress nor his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, were immediately available for comment. Dr Scott Rodeo, a team physician, examined Burress, 31, and told the Giants that the gunshot wound in his right thigh would have sidelined him for four to six weeks.

The Giants have won 11 of their 12 games and are a win away from clinching the NFC East division. This is the second time that the Giants suspended Burress this season. He missed the Oct 2 game against Seattle for missing a team meeting. Burress' latest woes began in the early hours of Saturday morning when he shot himself in the VIP section of a Manhattan club called the Latin Quarter, where he went with two teammates.

Authorities want to interview Antonio Pierce and Ahmad Bradshaw, who were at the club but insist they did nothing wrong. * AP