Jets were there for Plax during bad times

Plaxico Burress capped a whirlwind schedule of free-agent visits and phone calls from agent Drew Rosenhaus by settling on the Jets early yesterday morning. But the wide receiver's decision to play for the organization actually goes back more than two years, to the time when Burress quietly met with team owner Woody Johnson and general manager Mike Tannenbaum as he was awaiting his fate on gun possession charges.

This was May 2009, and neither Burress nor the Jets knew he eventually would be sentenced to 2 years in prison for what happened on the night of Nov. 28, 2008, when Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg at a New York nightclub.

Tannenbaum and Johnson were sufficiently intrigued to ask for a meeting and get a feel for whether Burress -- who had been released by the Giants -- might be interested in playing for the Jets once his legal situation was resolved. They sat down with him during a break in an owners' meeting in May in South Florida.

"Back in 2009, during the spring, I was able to sit down with them and talk to them," Burress said a few hours after signing a one-year, $3-million deal to join the Jets. "It really meant a lot to me, not really knowing the fate of my situation or what was going to transpire, just for them to be there at that time."

Burress and the Jets would have to wait a long time to get that chance to work together, but once the lockout ended and the opportunity arose, the wide receiver kept thinking about that meeting. And when he was ready to make a decision, he said he went with his heart and chose the Jets.

He made that choice without even meeting with the team or talking to Rex Ryan, who had left a couple of phone messages but never connected.

"It really said a lot about them," Burress said of the 2009 meeting. "I was humbled by it. To get the call and to come here and play for somebody that really supported me through thick and thin . . . I just hope I can come here, play great and help them win a championship."

The Jets had plenty of competition for Burress' services, with a half-dozen teams showing interest. The Giants were one of those teams; they were willing to offer an incentive-laden contract to their former receiver, who caught the winning touchdown pass in Super Bowl XLII before seeing his life go off the rails the following season.

Also interested: the Eagles, who swooped in late last week and grabbed Nnamdi Asomugha out from under the Jets; the Rams, whose coach, Steve Spagnuolo, knew Burress from his Giants days; the Steelers, the team that drafted Burress eighth overall in 2000; and the 49ers, whose first-year coach, Jim Harbaugh, had followed Burress' NFL career for years.

In the end, he went with the Jets, the team that reached out to him at his lowest moment.

"Just going with my heart, putting myself in the best situation for me and being able to compete to win a world championship and to become a part of a great organization," he said. "It's just something I want to be a part of. I feel like they have something special here. Hopefully, we can do some great things."

Don't bet against him. Even though Burress hasn't played since Nov. 23, 2008, I think he'll be able to shake off the rust and become a vibrant performer in the Jets' offense. There is no better red-zone target in the NFL, and pairing him with Santonio Holmes, who also has a Super Bowl-winning catch on his resume, will give the Jets' offense an added dimension.

Granted, Burress turns 34 on Aug. 12 and hasn't played in nearly three years. But we're talking about a finely conditioned athlete here, and Burress didn't take any physical punishment the past two seasons. He also is a man who believes his soul has been cleansed by the long, lonely days he spent at the upstate Oneida Correctional Facility. He will not take this opportunity for granted.

"When something is taken away that you love so much, you love it more," said Burress, who plans to make regular appearances to promote gun awareness, working with the National Urban League and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "You learn that playing in this business is a privilege."

Sounds like a man who gets it. Sounds as though the Jets just got themselves a terrific player who will do things right on and off the field now that he has his second chance.