Plaxico Burress Saga Will Never End

Remember this guy! Captain Sweatpants? Ringing any bells? Well, you may have assumed that he was already in jail or worse (the CFL), but his trial hasn't even started yet. And now it won't until 2010! Did someone say J-E-T-S?

Plaxico Burress appeared in court today so that a judge could tell him not to come back to court again. His case has been adjourned until September, at which point it will go before a grand jury—where he will almost certainly be indicted—and that means the actual guilty/not guilty trial will probably not take place until next year. It may seem like mindless legal maneuvering, but it actually makes a very big difference to Burress.

Plaxico's lawyers claim that Roger Goodell cannot suspend Plaxico Burress until he has actually been convicted of something. So by moving the trial back to February or later, he could conceivably play the entire 2009 season before any verdict is handed down. The NFL, however, doesn't necessarily agree with that interpretation of the player conduct policy. The league may try to suspend him anyway (followed by a lengthy grievance process with the Player's Association), but (maybe) can't do that until he's actually signed by a team. And no one will sign a guy if they think he's going to be suspended. And round and round we go...

No one can know what lurks in the mind King Goodell, but now every non-baseball sport has called it a season, you will be forced to ponder these questions until late August.

Burress Gun Case Adjourned Until September [NY Times] Plaxico Burress of New York Giants appears in court, gun case adjourned until September 23 [ESPN] Jets 'main team' for Plaxico [NY Post]