Plaxico Burress, the former New York Giants wide receiver who accidentally shot himself in the leg at a nightclub last year, was sentenced September 22, 2009 to two years in prison on various gun charges.

His lawyer Benjamin Brafman said the athlete was headed for Rikers Island in New York City, and then Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, New York, before he would be processed and sent to a another facility.

Burress, 32, pleaded guilty last month in state court in Manhattan to attempted possession of a weapon, as part of an agreement with prosecutors. He was indicted on more serious weapons-possession charges that carried a mandatory 3 1/2 years in prison.

“There is nothing I can say that can change the outcome of this morning’s proceedings,” Benjamin Brafman, Burress’s attorney, told Justice Michael H. Melkonian of the state Supreme Court. “If anything good can come out of this tragic case, perhaps other athletes, other young people, will think about the severe consequences that can befall them should they unlawfully possess a weapon.”

Burress was teary-eyed after he hugged and kissed his wife Tiffany, (pregnant with a daughter due in November), 3-year-old son, Elijah, and other family members in the courtroom. He apologized to them in a barely audible voice.

“We will all get through this,” Brafman quoted Burress as saying.

With good behavior on a two-year sentence, Burress will be released in 20 months.

The National Football League suspended him last month and Commissioner Roger Goodell said he could join a team after the prison term. The Giants dropped him in April.

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