Plaxico Burress made a blunt comparison during a recent appearance on Lil Wayne’s The Joint Venture Show, saying his 20-month prison sentence felt like playing for the New York Jets.
Burress said, “Going to prison, every day you wake up feeling like a loser,” before adding, “It felt like playing for the Jets.”
Why the comparison stands out
The comment is eye-catching because Burress was not speaking about a short stint at the end of his career. He was reflecting on a prison sentence tied to his 2008 conviction for illegal gun possession, then connecting that experience to a very specific NFL stop.
Burress joined the Jets in 2011 after already winning Super Bowl XLII with the New York Giants. The Jets were coming off back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances under Rex Ryan, but the team’s 8-8 season was a step back from those earlier runs.
On the field, Burress still produced. In one season with the Jets, he made 16 starts and finished with 45 catches for 612 yards and eight receiving touchdowns. It was a solid return for a veteran receiver who had spent five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and later returned there for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.
Burress’ place in NFL history
Burress was the 8th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft out of Michigan State University, and his career included big moments long before that Jets season. The most memorable came with Eli Manning and the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII, when Burress was part of a championship team that helped define his legacy.
That makes his comparison even more unusual. Burress was not simply revisiting a difficult chapter in his life; he was linking it to a season in the NFL, and to the New York Jets in particular. For fans, the remark offers a vivid reminder of how Burress views that period now: as a painful time, and one that he associates with one of the more turbulent stops of his football career.
