Former NFL receiver Plaxico Burress has been sentenced to two years in prison and will begin serving his time immediately.

From USA Today:

Burress was accompanied by this wife, son and father to the hearing this morning. He pled guilty to a weapons charge last month stemming from an incident in which he suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a Manhattan nightclub in Novembver.

ESPN reported Burress’ attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said it was “a tragic day for a decent man.”

I think the tragedy was avoided in this situation because Burress only shot himself and nobody else. Hopefully other athletes will think about this incident and how Burress will lose two years of his life because he was careless about a weapon and be more careful themselves.

Burress says he intends to play football once he’s released from prison, although he’ll be 34 and probably won’t have many options. His best football days are definitely behind him.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, Plaxico Burress has expressed interest in joining the Buccaneers in 2009. He has already reached out to former teammate Derrick Ward and has also spoken with Antonio Bryant about possibly joining the Bucs (not that either of those players have any bearing on whether or not the team will sign Burress).

If Tampa wants to take the risk on the leg shooter, then they’d have a decent amount of weapons on offense in Plax, Bryant and tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. Of course, the three would also make one hell of a combustible combination and any one of them would be liable to cause a distraction at a moment’s notice.

Some believe that the Bears also remain interested in Burress, but I can’t see GM Jerry Angelo pulling the trigger (pun definitely intended) on a move like that. If Chicago wanted to add a pain in the ass wide receiver to its roster, why not trade for Brandon Marshall (assuming they even have enough trade pieces to make a dal) and pair him with Jay Cutler?

Either way, it’s looking more and more than Burress will play next season. His trial case has been adjourned until September, which means he could still play in 2009, although there’s still a good chance the NFL will suspend him, too.

According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the Giants offered receiver Plaxico Burress the opportunity to earn $29.5 million (which was the remaining amount left on his contract) over the next four years, but he apparently rejected it in efforts to try and recoup the $1 million in bonuses and guarantees that the team withheld from him last season because of his gun charge.

Well, I’ve gotten the details of the offer and it turns out it was a pretty sweet deal for Burress. And the fact that he turned it down shows you how much he really didn’t want to be a Giant anymore.

According to someone familiar with the negotiations, the team offered Burress the chance to earn all of the money that was written into his contract from here on out. All he had to do was end his fight for the money he forfeited over the last four weeks of last season (base salary, roster bonus and signing bonus) during which he was suspended for “conduct detrimental to the team” and start playing by their rules.

It’s unclear if the full $1 million signing bonus payment the Giants withheld would have been considered part of the defaulted money or if the team would have held on to only the prorated portion for the four weeks he was suspended (a little more than $200,000) and paid him the rest.

I’m confused. Why did Burress want to get out of New York so badly? Because they withheld $1 million from him since they thought he breached his contract by shooting himself in the leg after being an idiot in a club? Or was it because they extended his contract for him in September of 2008 when he bitched that he wasn’t making enough money following their Super Bowl victory?

This guy hauls in the winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl and he feels as though the team owes him a debt of gratitude for the rest of his life. The Giants clearly did the right thing when they released him and put an end to the charade.