It's easy not to sign a (soon-to-be) felon when your boss gets involved in the transaction.

Sure, Joe realizes that headline isn’t really big news.

After all, the Mad Twitterer of the St. Petersburg Times, Rick Stroud, blogged this revelation while seemingly trying to put words in Bucs general manager Mark Dominik’s mouth, writing Dominik “indicated” the Bucs would not sign wide receiver Plexiglass Burress.

Joe read the story and never read any quote from Dominik suggesting anything of the sort.

Meh, whatever. Let’s just play naive and believe that Dominik indeed did tell the Mad Twitterer exactly that, off the record: That despite Raheem the Dream’s lust over Burress, the NRA spokesman and lone gunman won’t be signed by Dominik.

But that decision may have been made already for Dominik by Roger Goodell.

Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports typed a column Monday night that suggests Goodell has made up his mind about Burress and that Goodell, the warden of the NFL, will throw the book at Burress for his felonious deeds.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is leaning toward indefinitely suspending former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress and continuing to sideline quarterback Michael Vick, three sources with knowledge of the situations have indicated. Such moves would be the latest examples of Goodell’s tough stance on players embroiled in off-field issues as evidenced with the suspension of Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth earlier this month.

According to a source with the Giants, the league and another that’s close to Vick, Goodell figures to take a similar stance with the quarterback and Burress. Vick, a former starter for the Atlanta Falcons, is scheduled to be released from federal confinement on July 20 after serving 20 months for his part in a dog-fighting ring. A source indicated there was a reasonable likelihood that Vick, suspended indefinitely by the league in August 2007, will not be allowed to play this season and certainly not be with a team in training camp.

Well, well, well. This story just happens to break a grand total of two days —  two weekend days — after Dominik “indicated” he would not sign Burress.

One doesn’t suppose Goodell spoke with Dominik at some point last week on this matter, and Dominik knew that Goodell was going to come down with the hammer on Burress? Such discussions couldn’t have taken place between the NFL warden and a few general managers, could they?

Of course, this very likely did happen.

If Dominik has any common sense — and he impresses Joe as being a fairly sharp guy (his selection of bust-in-waiting Josh Freeman notwithstanding) — it stands to reason Dominik picked up his blackberry, dialed Goodell,  and asked the NFL warden what possible punishment he might dish out to Burress. Of course, Domink would have taken great pains not to call while Goodell’s wife Jane Skinner is on the air with Fox News.

It’s very likely Dominik “indicated” he wouldn’t sign Burress because he knew Burress wouldn’t be available this year, or possibly next. It’s easy to make such a non-move when the guy who runs your organization made the decision for you.

And Joe applauds Dominik for such a non-move.