UPDATE (6:47 am PT): MIAMI HERALD has a confusing account of the Taylor arrest. Did he hit another car and try to drive off in a car missing one wheel? Not clear. Jump in the comments if you can figure it out.

Lawrence Taylor arrested? And here I thought that the first contestant on “Dancing With The Stars” to be hauled to jail this year was surely going to be Donnie Osmond. At least the booking went smoothly; LT surely knows the procedure.

There aren’t a lot of details, but TMZ was the first to report that Taylor was arrested at 9:57 p.m. on Sunday in Dade County, Florida, for leaving the scene of an accident, in which there was also property damage. I’ll leave you to examine his mug shot and ponder what was going on.

But more potentially damaging than any of that is the following graph from the TMZ report: Read more…

There’s been plenty of talk lately about the NFL doing more to protect officials who find themselves in harm’s way during games.

(Key to the whole thing is the hat flying off)

Strapping helmets on may help, but what about those pesky white lines?

Video after the jump. Read more…

If you can avoid only one game this week, it should probably be the Raiders at the Giants on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on CBS. Some are calling the Giants the best team in the NFL, and the Raiders, who may not even have a coach, um, are not. May cause loss of vision and abdominal cramps; view at your own risk. Elsewhere on your dial: Read more…

Plaxico Burress began his two-year stint as a special guest of the New York state correctional facility system on Tuesday night, and the reception the ex-Giants receiver received couldn’t have been warmer. In fact, it was downright heated.

Plaxico’s first stop was an evening at Rikers Island, where the jailbirds were crowing at him at every opportunity.

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Usually, Tony Romo saves his worst for last, shining as the season begins but falling apart in December and January. But hey, last night was kind of a big game - it was the first “official” game at the new Cowboys Stadium, and it was a national TV audience against the arch-rival New York Giants. So I guess you can’t blame Romo for reverting to his late-season form and throwing up all over himself in the Cowboys’ 33-31 loss.

Romo threw three picks - including one that was returned for a touchdown - and generally looked more spooked than a race horse that’s just been hit with a firecracker. But despite this, the Cowboys actually led late, and it looked like Dallas might pull out an improbable victory. Read more…

Trusting a known substance abuser when it comes to their habits and history with substance abuse is usually a prohibitively treacherous plan of action; only the most lurid, hopeless tales ring true, usually because only the most lurid, hopeless details ever propel a drug user to come clean and stop protecting their destructive habits. It’s the nature of addiction.

So when former Giants great Lawrence Taylor - arguably the most notable drug abuser in NFL history* - told the YES NETWORK that his very first drug test didn’t actually contain his urine, well, we were more than a little skeptical.

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After Giants WR David Tyree’s famous, game-saving catch in Super Bowl XLII, the previously unknown wide receiver was hailed as a breakout star in the making. Eli Manning called him a “gamer,” the catch itself was voted the most memorable play in Super Bowl history, and Tyree seemed destined for big money either with the Giants or elsewhere. In a major media market like New York, stardom and celebrity seemed like a perfect step for the man who had already overcome so much.

Unfortunately, that overnight success story never quite happened. Eighteen months after David Tyree seemed to cement himself as a New York Giants legend, the hero of Super Bowl XLII is now unemployed.

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After yesterday’s sentencing of Plaxico Burress to two years in prison, it seems like you couldn’t turn around without hearing another person wailing, “Donte Stallworth gets 26 days for killing a man and Plaxico gets two years for shooting himself? Where’s the justice! I thought this was America!”

Okay. Back the truck up here. Stallworth and Burress’ cases have f–k-all to do with each other outside of the fact that both are in the NFL and they got sentenced in the same year. So let’s dispense with the flimsy comparisons of a DUI and a gun charge. And let’s also make one thing clear: Plaxico didn’t get two years for shooting himself.

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A lot of loose ends are being tied up concerning some unpleasant NFL offseason incidents. Donte Stallworth has been suspended for the year after committing vehicular manslaughter. Michael Vick has finally found a home in Philly after a two-season exodus due to dogfighting. And we’re no longer subject to an annoyingly ongoing “will he or won’t he” conundrum of a certain signal caller from southern Mississippi.

And now, Plaxico Burress’ shameful self-shooting saga has reached its conclusion. This morning, the former New York Giants receiver plead guilty to weapons possession, and as a result, will be spending the next two years in prison. Hope Sing Sing has NFL Sunday Ticket.

Read more…