Judge agrees to push Mark Sanchez’s criminal trial to 2026

A request by former Fox Sports NFL analyst Mark Sanchez and his legal team to move his criminal trial back has reportedly been granted.

A judge in Marion County, Indiana, has granted a motion for continuance filed by Sanchez’s attorneys, and LA Mag‘s Lauren Conlin cited court records showing that the trial will now begin the morning of March 12, 2026.

The extension gives Sanchez’s legal team an extra four months to craft their defense, while a parallel civil trial has become more complicated since the original incident in early October. The alleged victim of a stabbing incident at the hands of Sanchez in early October sued him and his former employer, Fox, shortly after being discharged from the hospital.

Sanchez was in Indianapolis to call a Colts game for the NFL on Fox when, the plaintiff alleges, Sanchez attacked him outside a hotel late at night. The alleged incident resulted in both Sanchez and the plaintiff, a 69-year-old delivery driver, being hospitalized.

The civil lawsuit was recently amended to include a third defendant beyond Sanchez and Fox. That third defendant is Huse Culinary, the parent company of popular St. Elmo Steakhouse. The lawsuit now alleges that the company contributed to the violent incident by potentially over-serving Sanchez at one of their establishments.

A new judge, James Osborn, was brought on to oversee the criminal trial in mid-October, and he overturned an initial decision, ruling that Sanchez’s criminal trial would, in fact, be televised.

While Sanchez and Fox Corp. are both defendants in the civil lawsuit, the company dismissed Sanchez in early November. Future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees was hired to replace him in the booth.