NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty Thursday to a weapons charge stemming from a shooting incident at a nightclub last year, the Manhattan district attorney said.
Former NFL wide receiver Plaxico Burress will serve two years in prison after pleading guilty to weapons charges.
Burress, 32, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of attempted criminal possession of a weapon and will serve two years in prison, according to Alicia Maxey Greene, spokeswoman for district attorney Robert M. Morgenthau's office. Two years of supervised release will follow his jail term, she said.
Burress is free on bail and will be sentenced September 22.
A grand jury indicted the former New York Giants football player earlier this month on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and a single count of reckless endangerment in the second degree.
He pleaded not guilty to those charges earlier this year.
Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg November 29, 2008, with a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol he was carrying in the waistband of his jeans. The incident occurred in the VIP area of the Latin Quarter nightclub in Manhattan.
A teammate who was with Burress, linebacker Antonio Pierce, drove him to a hospital and arranged to have the pistol delivered to Burress' New Jersey home, according to an August 3 statement from the district attorney's office. The district attorney also sought charges against Pierce, but the grand jury did not indict him.
Burress was not licensed to carry a pistol in either New York or New Jersey.
No one, including employees of the New York Presbyterian Hospital and the NFL, called the police to report the gunshot wound, as required by law. One of the hospital workers was suspended after the incident.
Burress became a hero to New York Giants fans in the 2008 Super Bowl when he caught the game-winning touchdown pass from quarterback Eli Manning with 35 seconds remaining in the game.
In the following year, however, Burress' career with the Giants was marred by a series of incidents in addition to the shooting. He was suspended from the team in early October for missing a practice, and later that month the NFL fined him $45,000 after he argued with a referee and threw a football into the stands during a game.
Burress was suspended from the Giants immediately after the shooting incident. The team released him in April.
CNN's Chloe Melas contributed to this report
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