Plaxico Burress Eligible to Play in NFL After Jail Term Ends

Hours after former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty to felony weapons charges, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave him a sliver of good news: Burress will be reinstated to the league as soon as his two-year jail sentence is completed.

That means Burress will be free to sign with an NFL team for the 2011 season, when he'll be 34 years old. It's far from a sure thing that Burres will stay in shape and still be physically capable of playing by then, and it's far from a sure thing that any NFL team will sign him, but Burress now knows that it's at least possible he'll be able to resume his NFL career in two years.

The NFL released the following statement today:

Plaxico Burress is not under contract to an NFL team. In light of his plea today, Commissioner Roger Goodell has suspended Burress and informed him that he is ineligible to sign with any team until he completes his jail term. Commissioner Goodell said Burress will be reinstated and eligible to sign with an NFL team upon the completion of his sentence. Burress was notified on June 26 that Commissioner Goodell had initiated a review of the matter for potential discipline under the NFL's Personal Conduct and Weapons policies. Commissioner Goodell and members of his staff conducted a hearing with Burress and his representatives last Wednesday (August 12) in New York.

A statement that says Burress has been suspended and is ineligible to sign might not sound like a bad thing for Burress, but as a practical matter, this was the best result he could have hoped for. Burress now knows that a day will come when he'll be permitted to play in the NFL again -- even if those two years in prison will feel like an awfully long time to wait.