Giants release Burress

"I am an optimist, and I believe most situations can be worked out," Giants general manager Jerry Reese said on the team website.

"We hung in there as long as we could in hopes that there could be a resolution to this situation other than the decision we made today to release Plaxico.

"It wasn't to be, so now we have to move on. Like everybody else here, we want nothing but the best for Plaxico and we are appreciative of the contributions he made to this franchise."

Burress's status as a member of the Giants was uncertain after he shot himself in the thigh with a gun he had stuffed into his waistband at a Manhattan nightclub last year.

The 31-year-old is charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, a felony carrying a minimum prison sentence of three and a half years. He has not entered a plea yet.

In four years in New York Burress caught 344 passes for 3,681 yards and 33 touchdowns, the biggest a game-winning touchdown pass in the Giants' upset victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

Taken with the eighth overall pick in the 2000 NFL draft by Pittsburgh, Burress spent his first five seasons with the Steelers before joining the Giants as a free agent in 2005.

"Plaxico's contribution to our championship season in 2007 can never be underestimated or undervalued," said Giants head coach Tom Coughlin. "He displayed tremendous determination throughout that season.

"Having said that, I have always been as concerned about Plaxico as a man as I have been about him as a player and my hope is that everything that has happened over the past several months represents a turning point."