Sports in brief: NYC grand jury indicts Burress

NFL: Former New York Giants star Plaxico Burress was indicted by a grand jury on weapons charges for shooting himself in the thigh at a Manhattan nightclub and faces a minimum prison sentence of 3  1/2 years if convicted, prosecutors announced Monday.

The indictment charged the 31-year-old Burress with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said.

“The grand jury applied the law to the facts of this case,” Morgenthau said. He said the accidental shooting at the Latin Quarter nightclub on Nov. 29 was treated “like any similar case against any other defendant.”

Burress’ lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the indictment, which came after Burress testified before the grand jury and expressed remorse.

“When you have the mayor and the district attorney both publicly demanding a maximum prison sentence, it was perhaps too much to hope for the grand jury to conduct a sympathetic review of the unique facts of this sad case,” Brafman said in a statement.

Burress’ former teammate Antonio Pierce, who was with Burress in the club and drove him to the hospital, was not indicted.

The panel also did not indict the nightclub security guard who carried the gun to Pierce’s car or the hospital staff members who failed to notify police that Burress was shot.

Morgenthau said hospital personnel were guilty of “a screw-up rather than a cover-up” and the security guard exhibited “bad judgment in the first degree” but did not commit a crime.

Giants President John Mara said the team was pleased that the linebacker was not indicted.

“We said last week we felt strongly that Antonio’s actions did not warrant criminal charges, and obviously the grand jury, having heard all of the testimony, felt the same way,” he said.

Burress was at the Latin Quarter nightclub Nov. 29 when a gun tucked into his waistband slipped down his leg and fired, shooting him in the right thigh.

The gun was not licensed in New York or in New Jersey, where Burress lived, prosecutors said. Burress’ license to carry a concealed weapon in the state of Florida had expired in May 2008.

The charges Burress was indicted on carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 1/2 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty to weapons charges earlier this year and is free on $100,000 bail.

•Season over for Eagles’ Bradley: Just because Andy Reid refused to talk about it doesn’t mean the reality is any less grim.

Middle linebacker Stewart Bradley’s season is over because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, but Reid refused to lead off his news conference after practice with his trademark injury report, choosing instead to cite a rules violation by the local media.

“I made a pact with you guys when I first got here that I would disclose to you the injuries — just stay away from the players and stay away from other personnel in the organization and I would take care of you with that,” Reid said. “That part was breached and so we’ll get on with the Flight Night part of things. Flight Night was a good experience for the players, the fans, the coaches.”

Multiple sources confirmed that Bradley suffered the season-ending torn ACL, and the third-year middle linebacker emerged from the locker room at Lehigh University with his right knee in a brace.

Driver back in Brazil, still recovering

Auto racing: Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, recovering from a life-threatening crash during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, arrived home in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Massa waved to photographers just before being admitted to the Albert Einstein Hospital in South America’s biggest city, where he is expected to stay for at least two days to undergo further exams.

Before leaving the AEK military hospital where he was being treated in Budapest, Massa spoke publicly for the first time after the high-speed accident that prompted surgery on multiple skull fractures. The crash occurred after he was hit in the helmet by a loose part from another car on Aug. 25.

“Many things have happened over the last days and I want to get back to a normal life,” Massa said in an interview on Ferrari’s Web site. “I want to get back into the best possible condition — doing things you do every day.”

The 28-year-old Massa, who had said he was feeling well aside from some swelling around his damaged left eye, will be replaced at Ferrari by record seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who visited the Brazilian and is coming out of retirement to race.

Roddick returning for Legg Mason Classic

Tennis: Andy Roddick is healthy and ready for his first match since losing the Wimbledon final.

Roddick, who hasn’t played since being beaten by Roger Federer on July 5, said he is recovered from the right hip flexor he sustained in that championship match at Wimbledon. Roddick is the top-seeded player in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic and has won the event three times.

He was originally scheduled to open play today after an opening-round bye, but his start was pushed back to Wednesday. “Physically I feel great,” Roddick said. “I didn’t want to make the error of coming back until I felt physically prepared to play in an event.”