An Arizona judge granted Michael Pittman permission Thursday to travel to Japan with Bucs teammates for a preseason game in three weeks.
A pretrial conference for the two felony charges of aggravated assault against Pittman has been moved back five weeks from July 30 to Sept.3, and the running back also has been cleared to have telephone contact with his wife, Melissa.
Pittman, facing felony counts of aggravated assault and a potential violation of probation, is free of an obstacle that would have kept him from the team. His attorney, Joel Thompson, is expected to request that Pittman's personal appearance be waived for a probation hearing July 21, and that hearing could also be postponed.
Pittman's attorneys had sought an end to the injunction keeping Pittman from initiating contact with his wife, but the slight change is no surprise, given the nature of the charges against him. Police said Pittman used his Hummer to ram into a Mercedes-Benz while she was inside with their 2-year-old son and an 18-year-old babysitter.
Melissa and the babysitter, Kristina Hegland, were in court with Pittman in his defense, according to Thompson, who said the court's continued restrictions on the spousal contact are normal under the circumstances.
"I'm not surprised," he said. "They're protecting them from themselves. They're saying that because of the history in this case, they know what's best for Melissa more than she does."
FALCONS: Rookie cornerback Bryan Scott, a second-round pick out of Penn State, signed a five-year contract with a $1.25-million signing bonus.
Also, nose tackle Ellis Johnson, a former standout at Florida, left the complex before practice without an explanation and no officials knew of Johnson's whereabouts.
TEXANS: Georgia Tech running back Tony Hollings was drafted in the second round of the supplemental draft.
VIKINGS: Michael Bennett said Wednesday he will miss training camp with a slow-healing foot injury that could also keep him out for the season.
"It's tough. I was looking forward to being back to training camp," he told WCCO-TV of Minneapolis. "I missed minicamp. It really burned me to my stomach to sit around and watch the other guys practice."
Bennett injured his left foot in March when he came down on it awkwardly on a treadmill. He had surgery a few weeks later.
NFL NETWORK: The 24-hour network dedicated to the league will launch Nov. 4 with the broadcast of NFL Total Access.
- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.
