The night he busted a cap in his thigh, Plaxico Burress was wearing jeans. This is a fact confirmed both by the New York County District Attorney's Office and Burress himself. He was not wearing sweatpants. There is as much proof that he wore sweatpants that night as there is that he wore a crinoline hoopskirt. You are perpetuating a myth, people.
Let's go through this again:
On Dec. 1, 2008, a New York Post story, authored by Murray Weiss, Larry Celona and Eric Lenkowitz, noted the following:
The players had arrived at the Latin Quarter at around midnight Saturday, and all walked through metal detectors — at which point, Burress informed security he had a gun.
He was then pulled aside and frisked, revealing a handgun tucked in the waistband of his sweatpants, sources said.
That's how it started. (Celona would later tell us that the sweatpants detail had come from a detective.) Lots of people had a laugh over the sweatpants. Plaxico Burress didn't just shoot himself, according to the popular imagination. He shot himself while wearing relaxed cottonwear. The incongruities were irresistibly funny: on the one hand, the nightclub and the Glock; on the other, the sweatpants. A wealthy man went to a fancy Manhattan nightclub and busted a cap in his thigh while dressed like someone named Tootie.
But was it true? In August 2009, in an interview with the furrows in Jeremy Schaap's brow, Burress said he was in fact wearing jeans. The district attorney agreed:
BURRESS was carrying the pistol in the waistband of his jeans, with bullets in the magazine, a round in the chamber and no holster.
So there it is, straight from the prosecutor: jeans. Cleared on all charges of being gauche in the first degree. Sartorially innocent. Stop the sweatpants libel, America.
EARLIER: Deadspin I-Team: The Case Of Plaxico Burress' Sweat Pants