The first Jerk of the Week for 2009 is New York Jets running back Thomas Jones. He threw quarterback Brett Favre under the bus after the Jets lost to Miami in the regular-season finale. Favre threw three interceptions and Jones, who thinks he’s the best running back in the league, said the veteran should have been benched.

Jones went on to say he was “ticked” and that the guys are all “playing for the Super Bowl.” Well, news flash Mr. Jones, you were officially out of the playoff race at halftime. Plus, Favre is the best option at QB. AND it’s the coach’s decision, so maybe you should have pointed your anger there.

Here’s the big fact: Favre made the Jets a better team. Yes, Chad Pennington went to Miami and helped turn the Dolphins into a playoff team, but Favre showed the ability to stretch the field with a stronger arm. Pennington is a good QB, but teams would have been able to stop the run more with him in the lineup.

So Mr. Jones, you should thank Favre for turning you into a better running back. You had more yards and more scores due to defenses needing to respect Favre. But instead of thanking him you chose to be a jerk.

I wonder how many yards you’ll have next season with the mighty Kellen Clemens as your QB? I’m guessing not as much as in 2008. Then you can stab him in the back when things aren’t going well.

You and those anonymous teammates have done nothing compared to what Favre has done. You were a castoff for Cedric Benson of all people. So, know your place and keep your mouth shut.

Dishonorable mention: Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans. You came out and said you should have been named the offensive rookie of the year over Matt Ryan. You said since you made the Pro Bowl then you should have earned the honor.

Well, playing running back is a lot easier than quarterback. Matt Ryan turned a franchise around. All you did, while having a good season, was provide a complement to LenDale White. And you failed to show up in big games later in the year.

Ryan was consistent and deserved the award. You did well, but maybe this will teach you to do what Mr. Jones hasn’t learned: to keep your thoughts to yourself.

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The Juice was found guilty last week on several counts of armed robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas. The former Buffalo Bills running back, who was aquitted of murder some 13 years ago, told the court he thought he was doing nothing wrong in trying to retrieve stolen property.

Well, O.J., threatening someone with a gun and stealing is wrong in just about everyone’s book. We all know you have skewed view of right and wrong, but perhaps the at leats nine years you’ll spend in prison will jar your memory. He’ll be behind bars until he’s 70 and could be in longer.

Then there’s Plaxico Burress, who last week was suspended for the remainder of the season after shooting himself in a club. The often troubled wide receiver might not play with the New York Giants again, and he has no one to blame but himself.

This is a guy who has missed countless meetings and training sessions. He’s been fined enough money to keep Wewahitchka running for a good four months and he thinks nothing of it.

Now, he shot himself in a club with a gun that was tucked away into his sweatpants. Yes, he wore sweatpants to a club.

Both of these guys can be put into the category of nimrod. They both had a full life ahead of them. And now it’s anything but.

O.J. could flash his smile anywhere and pick up and endorsement, and he basically got away with murder (whether he did it or not is not the point, but you’d think you’d keep your nose clean). Plaxico could do the same, plus he was making mega millions catching a football.

Now both are worthless. And they will have to rebuild reputations that have become tarnished. Good luck with that.

Dishonorable mention: United States automaker CEOs. You guys recently flew to Washington, D.C., asking for a bailout. Oh, and those flights came on company jets, which cost more than $20,000 per trip and each worth several hundred million dollars.

Imagine how many of the expected job losses you could save by selling these jets. Better yet, how bout giving up some of you $25 million salary.

Or, make better cars that have better gas mileage and won’t break down on the way to Walmart. Or, heck, make them more affordable. You know I saw an ad for an high-priced SUV, where the commercial had the fortitude to say the $12,000 you save is immense.

The final price tag was $57,000. Yeah, we’ll all be out to buy that in the morning.

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Davis, the NFL’s version of a bad joke, fired Lane Kiffin this week. He went a few steps beyond that by holding a press conference, telling the media how bad of a coach Kiffin was, how he didn’t want to draft JaMarcus Russell (who may not pan out, mind you) and how he didn’t get along with Davis. He even had visual aids and read a letter he sent to Kiffin. At least he can read.

He did everything short of brining out the Easter Bunny to sing the Raiders fight song, which goes something like this I think: Oakland, fight on. Forge into battle strong. Lose all night long. Oakland, fight on. There’s more losing at the dawn.

I’d be amazed to find anyone who would get along with Davis. His press conference only made him look like more of a jerk. His days of glory are well behind him, yet he thinks he is still relevant in today’s NFL.

He’s old and needs to move along. Lane Kiffin has already and he’ll make one heckuva coach someday, just like that other guy Davis ran out of town, Mike Shanahan, who has defeated the Raiders more times than Plaxico Burress has been fined by the New York Giants.

It’s so wonderful that the Raiders are the laughing stock of the NFL. They haven’t been worth anything since the Tampa Bay Bucs destroyed them in the Super Bowl a few years back.

They are a joke, and it’s all because of Davis, who thinks he can still run a team by picking players, many that have been busts, coaches and strategy. Have fun in the basement.

Dishonorable mention: Greg LeMond. You know, you used to be the best American cyclist. That is until Lance Armstrong took the spotlight away from you. Now you cry foul, saying Armstrong is dirty, yet he’s never tested positive for any banned substance.

You confronted Armstrong, Mr. LeMond, but he was too smart and deflected your questions. Get over it. Stop being jealous. You had a nice run. Let Armstrong live his life, especially after all he went through.

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We start off with Cuba’s Angel Matos, who kicked a referee in the head after being disqualified for taking too much injury time during a taekwando match. He was upset, which is understandable, but he should have walked off and taken it like a man. Instead, Mr. Matos, you took the coward’s way out and you were suspended for life for it. You deserved it.

Watch the video here.

Next we take a look at Sweden’s Ara Abrahamian, who threw down his bronze during the medal ceremony in grego-roman wrestling. He acted as if the guy who put the medal around his neck was to blame for his ineptness on the mat. The Swedish coach cried “politics” as the reason. I think a few better holds would have sufficed.

Finally, British runner Martyn Rooney took it upon himself to taunt Jamaica as he finished first in a 4×400 relay semifinal. The key word there is SEMIFINAL. Your team placed fourth. Oh, and Mr. Rooney fell flat in the 400 final. Way to go.

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Yes, what about Brett Favre? If you ask the Green Bay Packers the answer would be who cares?

Favre wants to play again, months after he retired. The Packers, and more specifically General Manager Ted Thompson and Coach Mike McCarthy, have other ideas.

Favre asked for his release. They won’t allow it.

Favre wants to be traded. They probably won’t do that, either.

Basically they told the face of the franchise that he would be an active member of the team, but he wouldn’t be the starting quarterback. He inquired about a coaching position, and they said no.

He may not even be the backup, if you read into what Thompson said on Saturday. Favre could just be wasted flesh on the sidelines.

And this is for what reason?

Favre brought the Packers back from the brink of irrelevancy. He won a Super Bowl title, was close in a second attempt and had the Packers a few plays away from last year’s title game.

He had one of his best seasons. He played better down the stretch than he did the first eight games of the season. He is a better option than Aaron Rodgers.

Yet Thompson and McCarthy see it a different way. They called the Favre saga a distraction. That it’s bad for poor old Rodgers and the rest of the team.

To that I say shut up. Additionally I say lose some of that weight, McCarthy. I’m overweight, but you are like three of me, dude.

This boils down to two guys on a power trip. Favre is the guy who made sure you had a job, McCarthy. Heck, he even kept Thompson in his cushy seat.

All Favre did was make the Packers one of the best teams in the NFL. He is the best QB on the roster and he should start. As of now he’ll probably be kept in retirement because of you two baffoons.

If only the players union could step in an force a release. Then Favre could play for Minnesota and throttle the Packers twice en route to the NFC Championship Game.

Enjoy life with Rodgers, the guy you are so high on yet you drafted two other quarterbacks. If he was the better option he should have started last season. He’s not and you’ll find that out when Brian Brohm is your starter in 2009.

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Dutrow is less than modest and he trumpeted his horse’s cause for weeks, even through a quarter crack in one of its hooves. He said if Big Brown got out to the lead it would all be over. On Saturday he guaranteed a win in front of a national television audience.

Instead, he was left with a last-place horse and angry with a sweat-stained shirt. And what was with all that sweat? Come on I sweat but dude that was a million gallons.

Anyway, he refused to say anything to the media for a short time after, and it’s understandable if he wanted to tend to his horse first.

But that’s not the kind of guy he is. It was obvious he was ticked that he lost, that his horse let him down. Or, as he led on it was his jockey and he made that point clear on Monday.

He basically threw Kent Desormeaux under the bus for the loss. The jockey did the right thing, though, knowing Big Brown was going to lose anyhow and not knowing if something was wrong.

Dutrow, who is grating with his tone and arrogance, will forever be known as the trainer who not only couldn’t get it done but who had a horse finish last in the Belmont while trying for the Triple Crown.

That’s a little justice for this guy, and for his handlers, who all felt this horse was a rock star while pushing cameras out of the way. You lost and it was great it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

Here’s the race again.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dishonorable mention: Anyone who calls a horse an athlete. I cringed at the thought early on when the term was used. It would have been terrible for a horse to have won Athlete of the Year and it was a good bet it would have happened had Big Brown won.

Horses are animals. They run because a little guy on their back is whipping them. Oh, and most are pumped full of steroids (like Big Brown was for the first two races) and frothing (probably literally) to go harder.

I love animals. I’ve been around horses. But they aren’t athletes. They’d much rather be on a ranch with open fields than in front of thousands of people plain and simple.

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The open-wheel “phenom” (with a whopping one win to her credit) was knocked out of Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 after Ryan Briscoe clipped her car in the pits. She spun into the wall and finished 22nd.

Ms. Patrick proceeded to do her usual spoiled brat stomp out of the car as if her world had come crashing down. She charged after Briscoe, who was still in his car mind you, and was guided away by race officials at the last second.

Afterwards, she told ESPN, with her trademark scowl, that Briscoe was “happy I didn’t get down there.”

What? Are you some kind of a thug now. Would you have opened up a flurry of punches on him, knowing full well he can’t fight back because he’d be called out for hitting a woman?

Come on, be serious. You would have used that as a shield while you berate him. You claimed he knew what he was doing all along as if they are all after you. I think it was more a part of your agressive driving to get out of the pits than anything else.

You probably would have done the same thing. This is on top of an accident that happened weeks before where you called a guy some fresh-faced rookie who doesn’t know the ropes. Yeah, as if you are the expert on good manners in racing.

This coming from someone who was in the Top 10 all day but race experts even pointed out you were never in serious contention to win the race. Your pouty looks and bad attitude are unbecoming and you’ll soon be known as the Tony Stewart of Indy car racing.

Get over yourself. Stop whining and race. And whipe that scowl off your face for crying out loud.

Dishonorable mention: Goes to Bill Belichick, who is a great coach but also a great cheater. First it was spygate. Now he apparently has been skirting the rules regarding injured reserve players and practice.

No way. This from a guy who puts his quarterback on the injury report each week out of protest? This from a guy who is so cocky he makes Terrell Owens look modest.

Coach B has a lot of dirt under his nails and the NFL is doing nothing to clean it up.

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The latest news links Clemens with country singer Mindy McCready, as a New York Daily News article reported the two carried on a decade-long affair. Clemens claimed they were simply friends (and it’s even more creepy if a then-28-year-old was “friends” with a 15-year-old kid). McCready has said otherwise, and was unable to refute any of the facts in the story.

There is another report of an affair with John Daly’s ex-wife. Both parties are mum.

The bottom line is Clemens is a guy who is not to be trusted. This is only a bad thing for his ongoing defamation law suit against his former trainer. All of these issues also will be used to build the potential perjury charge that could be coming.

I feel for Clemens if all these stories are false. If true, I also feel for him, but it reinforces that he was shady character in a sport that seems to be filled with a lot of them. And if he did use performance-enhancing drugs, all of this could have been avoided if he just came clean

He will be forever remembered for the bad things, rather than as a great pitcher. But, he has no one to blame but himself for that.

Dishonorable mention: The guy or guys who feel the need to leave a big duke pile in the toilet at work without flushing. It’s not difficult to flush a toilet. But they choose to let someone else do the work for them.

Do they do this at home? If so, I’d hate to smell their bathrooms. Oh, and I’ve also been told it happens in the women’s restroom at work. It’s gross and ridiculous.

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Mr. Castignoli, a Boston Red Sox fan, thought this would put a curse on the Yankees. Instead, he put a curse on his own guy, Big Papi, who started the season with the lowest batting average among players with enough qualified at-bats. (It was even worse than Andruw Jones, yikes.)

Castignoli was bold enough to wear the jersey to the contruction site and proceeded to put it into the concrete in front of everyone. What he should have done is hid the jersey, or done it under the cloak of darkness with a buddy. They could have taken pictures and taped the incident to throw it up on Youtube the day of the opening.

Now that would have been funny. But now the jersey has been unearthed and Big Papi had two hits. Interesting.

There’s talk of legal action. And it would be extra funny if he went down for this.

He’s not the Jerk of the Week because of his actions, just how he went about it. Now the curse is nothing but a footnote in history. It could have been something even bigger.

Dishonorable Mention: The Detroit Tigers, after spending all that cash in the offseason for the best offense in baseball, started 0-7 and are now 3-10. Entering Sunday’s game the Tigers had been outscored by more than 40 runs.

The Tigers’ pitching staff is weak and the bullpen leaves much to be desired. The offense was supposed to carry them. It’s hurt them big time.

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The front office also has a way of making boneheaded decisions. The latest was signing oft-injured wide receiver Javon Walker to a six-year deal that could be worth up to $55 million. He received a $6 million signing bonus and will make $5 in the first two years with the team.

This idiotic amount went to a wide receiver who had fewer than 300 yards last season with Denver. He had a decent year the season before, but went back on the injured list for most of last year.

He left Denver because he felt he didn’t fit in. The quick translation is he wasn’t the top dog anymore. Brandon Marshall, and to some degree, Brandon Stokley, rose above Walker in the receiver pecking order.

And just to clarify, WebguyJoe (as he will be called in this blog) said I hated the fact Walker went to the Raiders. Nope, I’m happy they took him off the Broncos’ hands. Marshall’s a much better receiver anyhow.

This was exactly what he did in Green Bay, when he said he “didn’t fit in,” after another injury-plagued year in 2005 and bolted to the Broncos. He’ll do that soon with the Raiders, especially after the team has another 10 losses.

The Raiders also signed two lackluster free agents to big deals, including making Tommy Kelly the highest paid defensive lineman who had a whopping amount of one sack last season.

Way to go Oakland. You remain the laughing stock of the league.

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The world’s combined mojo against the hated team worked wonders in Super Bowl XLII, and I thank those who joined the fight. OK, the New York Giants defense had more to do with it than fate, but we can all take solace in the fact that the Patriots failed. Thousands of Patriots fans (the true ones, who know who Steve Grogan and Stanley Morgan are without Googling their names) are having a pretty cruddy Monday.

That’s why the New England Patriots are my Jerks of the Week. They failed in their bid to go unbeaten. Instead, they are the biggest failures ever.

There have been three 18-1 teams in the history of the NFL. They are the only ones without a Super Bowl title.

It was a great game. Eli Manning outplayed the “great” Tom Brady. And the Giants proved they were the better team. Period.

Good luck next year, Patriots. Oh, and I hope you can avoid the curse of the Super Bowl loser. Ok, I don’t hope they avoid the curse, but that division is too weak for them not to make it back to the playoffs.

Man Sunday felt good.

Dishonorable mention: Tiki Barber. The former Giants running back retired after last season to put his smily face on the television. He threw everyone under the bus, including Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin. He said he was better off without the Giants. It’s clear they were better off without you, Tiki.

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I realize that Peyton may still be seething from his exit in the playoffs. But this is your younger brother inthe biggest game of his life, so you should have been there.

Perhaps he didn’t want to be a distraction. Or maybe he had another commercial to shoot. Or maybe he is afraid of the cold.

But again, you should have been there, man.

Update, Jan. 21, 11:04 a.m.: Joe the Web dude pointed out that Peyton went to an earlier Giants game and Eli threw four interceptions. That’s great, but it’s not like Peyton is Jessica Simpson. This is his brother.

Dishonorable mention: Donald Driver. The Green Bay wide receiver exploded for 141 yards, including a 90-yard touchdown catch in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. The reason he gets the nod here is because he went 70 catches without a TD catch before the long gain.

Believe me, I know. He killed my fantasy team. Yeah, I know, this is petty, but hey, it’s all in fun.

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