PB and J?

With the news that Plaxico Burress' trial has been postponed to September, there is great speculation that he may get a chance to play in the NFL this year. There is a need for the Jets to improve the talent and depth at the wideout position. I will examine what this latest development means in this article. There are two main factors that will affect the outcome of whether or not we see the big receiver don the green and white this year. The first obstacle is Roger Goodell. While Burress was suspended last year for five games, that was a team suspension issued by the Giants. The NFL still has a right to issue a suspension for violating the league's good conduct policy. I fear this more than the legal issues at this point as it truly looks as if he will not be in court until 2010 at this rate. Once the courts in New York start giving you postponements, it can go on for two years easily. I fully expect another postponement in September if there is no deal worked out between both sides by then. The second factor is what other teams remain interested in Burress as this all plays out. The two main teams are the Bears and Bucs. I feel that if either team stays interested and thus, drives the price tag up, the Jets will likely back off. This is a tricky scenario as Burress is in legal trouble in New York. While the team plays and practices in New Jersey (what a sham), Mayor Bloomberg would throw a fit should Burress get a big money deal here and be allowed to play before getting his trial. While this stinks of collusion, it is what it is. I suspect that Goodell will do as he always has done and wait until Burress is tried before giving his verdict on any suspension. An even bigger concern for me at this point, is that Burress was 28 minutes late to the hearing yesterday. This is not a sign of remorse or an effort to change by a player who had this same problem with being tardy to practice with the Steelers and Giants. I would surmise that if somehow you did excuse him for the practice issues with a case of A.I. (practice? we talking about practice!!!), then for a major court case which could directly affect the rest of your life, you would think he would want to be parked in his vehicle waiting for the court to open. If it was even just to put on the front of a good appearance. You don't want to mess around with a situation like that and Burress, whether he realizes it or not, showed a complete disrespect for the system in the fact that he was late yesterday. That in itself could scare teams off as well as cause a greater repercussion from the commissioner. In light of what happened with Donte Stallworth, you want to tread lightly with Goodell right now. The funny thing is, if you look at the other options who may be available in Braylon "brick hands" Edwards and Brandon "I never did an Ike Turner" Marshall, Burress is actually the best proven talent between all three. There is no question that the others may have more upside, but for an immediate impact, Burress is clearly the man. I think he would be more likely to watch himself than not. There are too many high character players on the Jets and they are all seeming to welcome him with open arms. Tim Hasselbeck even came out this week with a borderline slanderous statement ripping Burress. He basically flat out told teams to stay away from him, but seriously, look at this source. A career clipboard holding QB? We are all familiar with his wife's opinionated rants on "The View", so I suspect it is merely just him trying to seem like he wears the pants in that marriage (which we all know is not so). I feel that unless Mike Tannenbaum didn't satisfy his gambling itch last year with Brett Favre, the team will not attempt to sign Burress right now in light of this latest news. There is still too much uncertainty in the air regarding the legal and league aspects of it all for the team to go out and sign him anytime soon. While they very well could sign him this week and deal with the issues as they come up, it would be tough to justify making that move and then potentially losing him for say four games this year at a possible critical juncture. This is especially when you factor in all of the good publicity the team has been getting since drafting Mark Sanchez as well as working out any potential chemistry and timing with Kellen Clemens or Sanchez. There is a lot of talk around town that the team's interest has cooled on signing him. The same was said last year about Favre until late one Saturday night, the news broke that he was acquired. There is talk that Chanci Stuckey has been catching anything thrown near him in workouts so far this year and running solid routes. I don't mean this as a disrespect to he core of wideouts in camp right now, but we may be closer to getting a ham and egg surprise, than PB and J this year. Again, this is all dependent on Mr. T's gambling tendencies. After last pre-season, all that I can say is... Has anybody been to Vegas with Mr.T lately?