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Pierce
ALBANY, N.Y. — Happy. Relieved. Excited. Those words would describe Antonio Pierce Tuesday as he made his first public statement of training camp, one day after learning he would not be indicted on weapons possession charges.
Remorseful? Not Pierce. Like Fonzi trying to say he was wrr … wrr … not quite correct, Pierce maintained that his actions on the night Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself were called for.
“I am not sorry for how I acted that night and how I responded,” Pierce said. “I am sorry for putting myself in a position in which I had to respond. I’ve learned a lot of lessons from this. I take them to heart, and I obviously take them seriously.”
Pierce testified in front of the grand jury two days last week.
“I thought I acted very reasonably and responsibly and instinctively to a teammate that was in need, and that was my concern that night, to get him help,” Pierce said. “The people of New York obviously heard what I had to say, they heard the witnesses and everybody that was involved with that night, and they made a decision.”
A Manhattan grand jury delivered a no bill on charges against Pierce Monday afternoon, the same day it indicted Burress on two felony weapons charges and reckless endangerment.
Many believed Pierce was in the clear, but in recent weeks the district attorney began making noises about pressing charges against him. Asked if he was caught off guard by those remarks, Pierce only grinned and said: “That’s between me and the D.A.”
Pierce has been on the field for all four practices of this training camp despite the legal distraction. On Monday afternoon he was able to practice with the knowledge of the grand jury’s decision as well as an announcement that the NFL saw no reason to suspend him.
“Without a doubt, I think everybody was very happy with the decision,” Tom Coughlin said. “Now we can move forward.”