AP

The Ray Rice appeal hearing won’t be the only important legal proceeding on the docket for NFL next week. On Tuesday, November 4, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson will have a pre-trial hearing in Texas on pending felony charges of child abuse.

With a trial set for December 1 (and amid chatter that lawyer Rusty Hardin will still try to get the trial moved to November 18), the case is moving forward, quickly. Plenty needs to be done; while many plea bargains happen on the eve of trial, plenty of prosecutors prefer to wrap cases up before investing significant time into preparing for trial.

In the Peterson case, prosecutors could indeed be looking for a way to work things out. In addition to the challenge of facing Hardin, one of the more accomplished and experienced lawyers in the country, a grand jury originally refused to indict Peterson. While an indictment eventually came, the inability of the prosecution to secure an indictment while having the stage to itself doesn’t bode well for the prosecution’s ability to secure a conviction under the very high “if it doesn’t fit you must acquit” standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

From Peterson’s perspective, the sooner the charges are resolved, the sooner he can play football. The only problem is that he doesn’t know what the NFL ultimately would do under the personal conduct policy if he pleads guilty to the pending charge or some lesser included offense. Already, Peterson has missed seven games with pay; as of Sunday, it will be eight. A strong argument could be made that time served plus forfeiture of a certain number of the game checks he has received should be the fair outcome.

Regardless of what the league would do, the time is quickly coming for the prosecutors and Peterson to decide whether there will be a trial, or whether there will be a plea bargain.