Jets Losing Interest In Plaxico?

On the same day that free-agent receiver Plaxico Burress, via his lawyer, seemed to position the pending criminal charges against Burress for a trial that would start after the 2009 season ends, one of the three teams widely believed to be interested in his services reportedly is bowing out. Dave Hutchinson of the Newark Star-Ledger writes that he’s “hearing that the Jets feel that their collective group of wide receivers are good enough to get the job done, though it’s still only June.” Of course, it’s possible that the Jets have adopted this posture for negotiating purposes only, given that agent Drew Rosenhaus probably will set the floor for Burress at the one-year, $6.5 million contract that Rosenhaus somehow finagled for Terrell Owens earlier this year. Meanwhile, Rosenhaus is doing his damnedest, via Twitter, to persuade potential suitors that Plaxico will be available to play this year -- and that he won’t be suspended by Commissioner Roger Goodell until the case is resolved in court. Peter King of SI.com summarizes the situation facing the Commissioner as follows: “I think this is a very slippery slope for Roger Goodell. He’s on record as being opposed to discipline for a first-time offender until that offender has his case adjudicated in a court of law. So on the surface, he seems bound to have to give Burress his day in court before bouncing him. The mitigating factor here is that it’s such an open-and-shut case; Burress has never argued he didn’t possess the gun, and he has never argued he didn’t fire the gun. But if Goodell lives by his precedent, he’ll let Burress play until he’s tried. I’m not trying to be a cop here. I’m just saying this continuance for Burress, on all sides, might be legally justifiable. But it stinks. That’s the only word for it -- it stinks.” Finally, we continued to be perplexed by the apparent willingness of prosecutors to cooperate with Burress, and to offer him a deal that (if ever accepted) would result in only two months of jail time. Last week, I spent plenty of time traipsing around Times Square with my wife and my son. And in that crush of humanity, one thing became obvious -- any moron who would tuck a loaded, unlicensed Glock into the waistband of his sweatpants in Manhattan deserves to spend 42 months at Riker’s Island.