LTC Gadson Attends NFL Game

Burress breaks out of blues
New Jersey Star-Ledger
Monday, September 24, 2007
BY STEVE POLITI

Plaxico Burress trotted up the Giants sideline with the football tucked under his arm, looking like he was ready to take home a souvenir from the touchdown reception that capped a second-half rally.

But the ball wasn't for him. Instead, Burress found Lt. Col. Greg Gadson on the sidelines, leaned forward so he could see the war hero in the wheelchair eye to eye, and handed the ball to him.

Gadson had spoken to the Giants on Saturday night, telling the players about his experience in the Iraqi war -- and the roadside bomb that destroyed his jeep in May and left him a double amputee. Burress, who like Gadson is a Virginia native, took the motivational speech to heart.

"I never met a guy in his condition who was in such high spirits," Burress said. "When you see people like that, you kind of say to yourself, 'Man, all I have is an ankle (injury).'"

Burress missed most of last week with a right ankle injury and figured he was about 80 percent coming into this game. He looked worse than that in the first half, failing to catch a pass and dropping three throws from quarterback Eli Manning as the Giants fell behind 17-3.

"I don't think I've ever started off a game like that," Burress said. "I came in at halftime, and there was nobody as disappointed as myself. Those are things I don't know. I felt bad because I let my team down. The defense was playing great and I was just stinking it up, basically.

"It was one thing after another. It seemed like we couldn't get a handle on the ball early," he said. "We came in before the second half, I sat on that chair over there, and I was telling myself that my team was counting on me to go out and play well in the second half."

Burress looked like a different player after intermission. He caught five passes for 86 yards, and with 5:32 left in the game, put the Giants ahead with a nifty catch and run on a short pass.

With the Giants facing a second-and-nine at the Redskins' 33-yard-line, Burress caught the throw from Manning at the 20, broke inside to get past cornerback Carlos Rogers and then made a move on safety Sean Taylor that he described as "one of those backyard Virginia Beach moves."

Taylor fell for it, leaving Burress a clear path to the end zone. Strong safety LaRon Landry leveled him after he crossed the goal line, but it didn't matter: The Giants had taken a 24-17 lead, and Burress, after that difficult first half, made the biggest offensive play.

"I just had to keep fighting," Burress said. If we had lost the game I would have felt horrible, but I still feel bad because I let the team down. But in the end, we finished strong and won the game."

Instead of a flashy end-zone celebration, Burress ran to the sidelines to find Gadson, a U.S. Military Academy graduate who has served in Bosnia, in Operation Desert Storm and as a battalion commander with the 32nd Field Artillery in Iraq when he was severely wounded.

The two men spoke briefly when Burress handed Gadson the football. "He had some bad things happen to him in Iraq," Burress said. "Just seeing the good spirits he was in after all he's been through, sometimes you have to say to yourself, 'Hey, you've got to go.'"