Burress' shooting renews NFL's concerns over player safety

LANDOVER, Md. — New York Giants receiver Amani Toomer used to snicker and scoff when he'd notice pro athletes traipsing around town with personal bodyguards.

He isn't laughing now. Not after hearing about various violent episodes involving NFL players, the latest being when teammate Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the thigh at a New York nightclub.

"I used to see guys walk into clubs with security, and I was like, 'Who do they think they are?' But now I'm like, 'Wow. This is a big deal,"' Toomer said Sunday after the Giants' 23-7 victory over the Washington Redskins.

"There's a lot of incidents that happen around the league — guys having fun and socializing and they get in places where people are envious and jealous of them. Something needs to be done, because it's not going to get any better. It's going to get worse."

The serious issues the NFL faces about guns and player safety were front and center this particular Sunday at this particular stadium.

On the very afternoon 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 what happened to star receiver Burress on Friday night.

"Players live in a serious fantasy world and a lot of it is involved with guns," Dave Abrams, the director of security for the Denver Broncos, said Sunday.

"They don't realize you can't call a bullet back."

League policy bans guns from team facilities — there are signs pointing that out in locker rooms across the country.

The NFL also tells players not to have guns — something which largely goes unheeded. At least two members of the Redskins purchased guns after Taylor was shot.

"A lot of players, for whatever reason, feel the need to carry guns," Giants president and CEO John Mara said. "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."

Abrams, a former deputy police chief in Denver, spends time visiting bars and clubs that players frequent, passing out his card and telling managers and bartenders to call him if they see one of his players getting into trouble. He said he is clear with the Broncos about his objectives.

"It's not that we're spying," he said after Denver beat the New York Jets 34-17 at Giants Stadium. "We make it clear to them that our main job is looking for their welfare."