ROME, N.Y. – The man who used to wear No. 17 for the New York Giants and caught the most famous touchdown pass in team history passes through a massive steel door, and now he is walking toward you. He has green prison-issue pants and a blue-shirted corrections officer with him step for step, as if the guy were a defensive back. The irony isn’t lost on No. 17, who used to run free in secondaries, a 6-5, 230-pound handful, and now can’t shake free of anybody.
Once inside the visitor’s room of Oneida Correctional Facility, the officer heads to the guard station. Plaxico Burress sits down at a little square table. He looks straight ahead at the three brown gates, razor-wired walkway and two metal doors that separate Oneida’s 955 inmates from the outside world, and starts talking about his son Elijah.