The New York Daily News’ Ralph Vacchiano and Larry McShane have a source (Mark Bavaro? Ray Handley?) who insists the NY Giants’ “talented but troubled” (not Deep Throat’s words, presumably) suffered an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday evening.

The Daily News helpfully provides hyperlinks to “report offensive post” when readers cross an imaginary line with their comments, and either no one is reading these messages or I’m the only person who thinks the paper oughta be embarrassed by this one :

I guess perceived talent makes you overlook all the “little things” you hope money will make go away. It hasn’t worked with michael vick, barry bonds, stephon marbury, to name a few.

Wow, I wonder what all those guys had in common?  Interesting point, though ; Bonds’ lack of cuddliness was clearly an obstacle to his success on the diamond. Imagine if he’d gone to charm school, the Sultan Of Sulry would’ve hit 1500 home runs in his career.

In all seriousness, while Burress is a pretty easy target for tabloid readers and chat radio screamers, his arrival at the Swamp has coincided with three consecutive playoff appearances and a Super Bowl ring.  How’s that for overlooking the little things?