When Dallas Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones heard about Plaxico Burress’ accidental shooting, only one thing went through his mind, “I must have this player!”

After all, he did sign Tank Johnson, and Adam (No Longer Pacman) Jones, who can’t go to the bathroom without fighting with his bodyguard. But, the serious issue here is Plaxico Burress and the poor choices he made.

When words like nightclub, drugs, alcohol, 2 a.m. and guns all appear together, something always goes wrong. It started out as a typical Friday night as Burress and teammate, Antonio Pierce, walked into the Latin Quarter. The two sauntered inside, heading for the VIP section, Burress with a loaded, illegal gun tucked into the waistband of his track pants. Within one hour, the Latin Quarter was a crime scene and Burress’ career was in jeopardy.

Around 1:50 a.m., as Burress fumbled with the glass in his hand, the .40-caliber Glock slipped down his leg, and as he grabbed at it, he accidentally pulled the trigger and shot himself in the thigh. On the way to the hospital, Pierce threw the illegal gun in the glove compartment of his Escalade. Somehow, Burress was not severely injured, but many questions remain unanswered.

Now, I actually have a few questions for Mr. Burress. My first question is, why were you at a nightclub at 2 a.m. just before your team’s football game? Why would you put your playing time and career in jeopardy? If you really felt you had to bring a gun to a club to be safe, why go to that club? And if you knew it was illegal to carry an unlicensed gun, why wouldn’t you just register the weapon? HELLO! It’s called common sense and obviously Burress, among many other athletes, are not familiar with it.

To me, going out to a nightclub, getting drunk, and carrying an illegal weapon shows absolute disrespect to your team. Athletes like Burress spend their time holding out of practices and pre-season workouts so they can negotiate a contract worth more than 60 million dollars. Then, they show their team’s front office that spending 60 plus million dollars on them was a poor idea because they are stupidly going to nightclubs and breaking the law. Athletes are sometimes viewed as role models for kids. And now, this “incident” might teach kids the wrong idea.

Now, I am not saying that athletes shouldn’t be allowed to carry around weapons. We all have a right to legally carry a weapon. Unfortunately, there are bad people in the world and people like athletes need to take appropriate safety precautions. Athletes have what a lot of people don’t have, and that makes athletes a much bigger target for robbers. I am not trying to make Plaxico Burress look bad. He did that himself. I am not trying to say all athletes are irresponsible. But, what I am saying is that athletes need to use some common sense.