Every year we ask our readers to vote for the Outsports Jerk of the Year: The person or people in sports who really screwed up. We are encouraged that this year was the hardest to find people who behaved anti-gay. At least that's some progress.

Plaxico Burress. The new posterboy for dumb athletes, the New York Giant wide receiver who caught the Super Bowl-winning touchdown pass in February (allegedly) accidentally shot himself in the leg with an (allegedly) illegal handgun and was suspended by the Giants for the last four weeks of the season. Can you imagine where he’d be if the gun had accidentally shot someone else? Dumb dumb dumb.

Chinese Olympic Committee. When they announced they would do a chromosome test on anyone competing as a female whose appearance raised a red flag (no pun intended). The announcement came very late, after most Olympians had already been chosen, and gave other countries virtually no time to take precautions. Plus, the test as a litmus test for Olympic participation goes against Olympic policy, which has opened the door for transgender competitors.

NBC Sports. Hell hath no fury like a cute gay man scorned! The gay community was up in arms over NBC’s failure to mention during their diving coverage that gold medalist Matthew Mitcham is gay. NBC apologized, and we were left wondering if there would have been the same outcry had it happened to a 250-pound shot putter.

Pro-Prop 8 athletes. A couple Southern California pro athletes got in on the gay-bashing this fall by supporting, either vocally or monetarily, Proposition 8. San Diego Charger Jacques Cesaire leant his voice to a religious campaign for the proposition; And Los Angeles Dodger Jeff Kent gave money to the fight to ban same-sex marriage.

Jim Rome. The uber-macho Jim Rome, who often slides in and out of homophobic comments, targeted transgender people in a rant about Christiano Ronaldo hiring a trans hooker. In his typical, “look how macho and straight I am” bullshit, he was deeply disrespectful to trans people by referring to them as “she-males,” among other names. He apologized to GLAAD; But remember, this is the same guy who rips athletes for meaningless apologies when they screw up.

Soccer homophobes. This is not to say that soccer has homophobia cornered; It doesn’t by a long shot. In fact, soccer has some very metrosexual superstars. But, this year we saw glaring example after example of homophobia in soccer. Lesbian soccer players were attacked in Southern California. A former Italian soccer exec saying he would never sign a gay player. English fans hurling homophobic slurs at opposing players. In 2008, no sport showed its external homophobia more than soccer.

I have to go with the anti prop 8 athletes.. especially Jeff Kent. Giving money to a cause like is beyond pathetic and deserving of the award... close 2nd to Plaxico though...

Jim Rome should get into the Jerk Hall of Fame. Every year he does something jerk-ish to get attention. I've always despised him all the way back to the time when he was calling Jim Evertt "Chris".

I picked soccer homophobes. I see prop 8 supporting athletes is ahead. But those folks won't last as long IMO.

without getting into an athlete's political activities (which I try to separate from what they do in their respective sports venue) I judge an athlete's actions on how it affects his sport and/or team.

with that criteria in mind, Plaxico Burress and his jerky behaviour all season long that culminated in his shooting himself gets my vote

As a Giants' fan, my vote went to Plaxico.

As a gay man, the others all deserve it, though NBC Sports, at least, acknowledged its mistake.

I voted for Prop 8 supporters (with a dishonorable mention to homophobe soccer players) based on number of people whom their actions impact. In this case, millions.