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Former Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress left Oneida Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y., on Monday morning wearing mostly black, but there was nothing but happiness in his heart.

"It's a beautiful day," Burress said in a brief statement to reporters. "It's a beautiful day to be reunited with my family ... As far as football is concerned, if and when everything is settled and when they get back on the field, I'll be ready."

Burress served almost two years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon. In November of 2008, Burress accidentally shot himself in the thigh when a weapon he was holding in his sweatpants discharged in a New York nightclub, and that started a downward spiral that now has him as an interesting NFL comeback story. Between the recent rehabilitation story of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick and the currently slow NFL news cycle, we can expect to hear all sorts of football options for

yahoo_superheroesThere have been several amicus briefs filed during the current Brady v. NFL timeline — one from the Sports Fans Coalition, another from the collective Players Associations of the NBA, the NHL and Major League Baseball, another from the Elected Officials and Small Business Owners, and another from the National Football League Coaches Association. Amicus briefs are legal documents submitted by unsolicited groups or individuals with intent to help a court decide a case.

Of course, those submitting those briefs run the risk of their opinions being rendered irrelevant — or, in the case of the National Football League Coaches Association, not representative. At last count, 15 coaching staffs had made it public that the NFLCA didn't speak for them. While that may be examples of several successive examples of coaching staffs looking to keep their jobs, it's still an embarrassment for the organization.

That said, it's going to be tough for anyone to top the brief filed with the Eighth Circuit

When the New Orleans Saints won Super Bowl XLIV at the end of the 2009 season, they did it with the most diverse passing attack in the NFL. Head coach Sean Payton ran a multifaceted set of schemes that drove defenses crazy. And as much as that effectiveness had to do with the talent of the receiver corps and quarterback Drew Brees(notes), the hidden factor in that offense was the presence of running back Reggie Bush(notes). Whether Bush accumulated great stats or not was irrelevant in a general sense, because the mere threat of him making – and breaking – a play on the field forced defenses to alter their coverage concepts.

Mark Ingram(notes) could help the Saints can return to their Super Bowl form.
(Getty Images)

When Bush lined up in the slot, the Saints saw more nickel defenses than just about any other team. And when Bush motioned from the backfield to the slot, linebackers were caught in matchup nightmares. Other receivers, who never should have seen single coverage, were

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SEATTLE, Wash. -- While counsel for the NFL and NFLPA were wrapping up arguments about the future of professional football in a St. Louis courtroom, a group of over 30 football players — most of them Seattle Seahawks — gathered in the University of Washington weightroom to participate in structured workouts put together by UW strength and conditioning coach Ivan Lewis, and coordinated by longtime Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. Though he's currently a free agent and has been tied to a number of other teams in various rumor mills, Hasselbeck ran Friday's workout with a sense of order and command that exhibited his value beyond stats and plays to his team.

It's difficult under the best circumstances to get a group of players together to participate in voluntary offseason conditioning with no NFL involvement, but under Hasselbeck, this 45-minute weight session, and the subsequent hour-long football drills that took place at the UW's Dempsey Indoor facility, looked as organized as

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Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis isn't always seen as a kind man, mostly because of his on-field demeanor and certain incidents that happened over a decade ago in Atlanta, but the truth is that on a day-to-day basis, there are few NFL players more interested in helping and mentoring others than the future Hall of Famer. This came into sharp focus recently, when Lewis met 10-year-old LaShaun Armstrong, whose mother drove her car into the Hudson River in April. LaShaun was the only one to escape the car — his mother, younger sister and two younger brothers did not survive.

Lewis was made aware of the story, and immediately reached out to the child, remembering to WNYT.com that his own mother could not afford to keep him when he was a teenager. "I looked at him and told him, 'I'm here for you man. I can't replace what you've lost. But I can tell you that I'm here to go forward with you.'"

On a "TODAY" show piece on the bond between the two, LaShaun said that Lewis "[is] like a big

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UPDATE: On Thursday morning, ESPN's Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter first reported that DeMaurice Smith, the head of the NFLPA, and various players association officials were in Chicago for what was actually a negotiating session in which it was hoped that the vast divide between the owners and players could be bridged -- perhaps as a precursor to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Schefter also reported that the meetings were so confidential, some owners didn't know that they were taking place. Certainly an interesting series of developments with the next hearing just a day away. Stay tuned for more details as we get them...

With the next labor hearing beginning on Friday on front of the Eighth Circuit Court in St. Louis, another opportunity for the players to argue the legality of the current should lead to some drama in what has been an all-too-quiet NFL landscape of late. And as Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune has sleuthed, the drama is beginning before the date of the