Giants Must Pay $1M Bonus to Burress Even Though He Shot Himself

After accidentally shooting himself in the leg in a Manhattan nightclub last year, Plaxico Burress was suspended for four games by the New York Giants and fined an additional amount equal to one week's salary.

But the combined penalty of a little over $1 million suffered by the star wide receiver, who lost his job with the Giants on Friday, won't be doubled by the loss of a $1 million bonus payment, reports ESPN. An arbitrator ruled today in a grievance filed on Burress' behalf by the National Football League players’ union that the team still must ante up the $1 million, according to Burress agent Drew Rosenhaus.

The $1 million was part of a $4.25 million signing bonus that Burress was to be paid, along with a $35 million five-year contract extension agreed to in September.

Citing a clause in Burress' contract that allows the team to recoup a portion of the signing bonus should he be incarcerated, detained by authorities or suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, the Giants withheld payment of $1 million due a couple of weeks after the late-November shooting. But the arbitrator found the contract language wasn't enforceable because a collective bargaining agreement didn't expressly provide for recoupment of bonus money in excess of $250,000, ESPN explains.

A team spokesman confirms the arbitrator's ruling but otherwise declines to comment, reports Bloomberg.