Between Brett Favre, Plaxico Burress, and Michael Vick, it’s been a banner summer for tiresome off-the-field football story lines that just won’t go away. And yesterday, when Burress’s felony-gun-possession case was adjourned until September, it paved the way for the wide receiver to sign with a club for 2009 — thus allowing him to control a news cycle or two in the short term and eventually become the focal point of some poor team’s training camp. But what’s important — well, to us at least — is that it won’t be the Giants camp, and probably won’t be the Jets camp either.
Had the Giants not severed ties with Burress already — and you’ll recall it was no sure thing that they would — he’d be quite the distraction right now, and would have been for weeks leading up to his court appearance yesterday, since the team’s offensive plans would have hinged on his availability. (They quietly settled Burress’s remaining grievance yesterday, thus totally ending the ordeal on their part.) And the Jets, who have been rumored to be interested in signing the wide receiver, have reportedly cooled on him as well. (In their case, while he’d certainly benefit the offense, we’d argue that until this is behind him, he’d be more trouble than he’s worth.) This is the same Jets team that granted Favre his release in April, guaranteeing that when the inevitable comeback attempt was set into motion, they wouldn’t be a part of it — even if it meant that maybe they’d walk away with a token draft pick from Minnesota a few weeks from now. You see, all of this combined allows us to focus on the more meaningful aspects of the sport, like modeling and sketch comedy.
