When a player gets traded or gets in trouble, sporting goods retailers are among the most nervous. If the player is very popular and never plays for the team again, it's a disaster from an inventory standpoint. Retailers have to slash prices to somehow get rid of the useless jerseys.

When the Plaxico Burress gunshot would story emerged, I immediately thought of Mitch Modell of Modell's Sporting Goods. If you live on the East Coast, you know that Modell's absolutely dominates the sporting goods scene.

Given that Mitch is about as in the know as you can be in the business, I popped a note to him this afternoon asking how bad it would be if the New York Giants wide receiver never played for the team again.

Modell replied simply, "Exposure is limited."

He knew exactly what I was looking for. Although Burress is the second most popular Giants jersey purchased on NFLShop.com since April 1, there's a wide gap between the amount of Eli Manning jerseys sold and Burress jerseys sold.

Manning has the third most popular jersey in the league, while Burress is far behind at No. 24. Just to give you some perspective that's five spots behind Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley. SI's Peter King on NBC's "Football Night in America" last night predicted that Burress would never play for the Giants again.

Source: nflshop.com Plaxico Burress Jersey

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