Plaxico Burress hopes to resume his NFL career when he's released from prison. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Former New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison on a weapons charge stemming from an incident in which he shot himself at a New York City nightclub last year.

Burress was indicted on two counts of weapon possession and one count of reckless endangerment and pleaded guilty Aug. 20. He had faced a minimum sentence of three and a half years on those charges if convicted at trial, but pleaded to the lesser charge of attempted criminal possession of a weapon and agreed to the two-year term.

Burress said goodbye to his family Tuesday as he surrendered to begin his prison stint immediately.

The 32-year-old has said he hopes to resume his NFL career when he's released. With time off for good behaviour, Burress likely will serve 20 months. He will be monitored an additional two years after he is freed from prison, which could come as early as the spring of 2011.

Defence lawyer Benjamin Brafton said, "This is a very real tragic case in many, many ways." He called Burress "a fundamentally decent man."

Burress, who caught the winning touchdown in the Giant's Super Bowl upset of New England in January 2008, was at the Latin Quarter nightclub last November when a gun tucked into his waistband slipped down his leg and fired, wounding him in the right thigh. The bullet narrowly missed a nightclub security guard standing inches away, became lodged in the floor and was recovered by a bartender, prosecutors said.

The gun was not licensed in New York or in New Jersey, where Burress lived.

Former Giants teammate Antonio Pierce, who drove Burress to the hospital, was not indicted. The grand jury also did not indict the nightclub security guard who carried the gun to Pierce's car or the hospital staff members who failed to notify police that Burress had been shot.

Pierce is still with the Giants. Burress was cut in April, just months after signing a five-year, $35-million US contract extension.

With files from The Associated Press