Jan 12th 2009 6:30AM by Michael David Smith (author feed)

The New York Giants’ season is over, and when they look back on this year, Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg will stand alone as the moment that transformed them from defending champs and No. 1 team in the league to just another postseason also ran.

But that doesn’t mean the Giants are done with Burress. In fact, Giants general manager Jerry Reese said it’s “absolutely” possible that Burress could be a Giant in 2009, and he told the New York Daily News that he thinks Burress is a huge part of the offense:
“Obviously it’s hard to replace that,” the GM said. “The guy has a presence out there and when you lose that, teams play you differently. Your margin of error is way less when you don’t have a guy with that kind of presence out there. Your margin for errors goes way down so you have to capitalize on every opportunity you have.”
The problem, of course, is that Burress is facing felony gun charges, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has personally gotten involved in the case and made clear that he wants Burress to spend time in prison. That means there’s a very good chance that Burress won’t be playing anywhere in 2009. But if Burress does play, it sounds like it’s going to be with the Giants.