Three years ago, Brandon Jacobs carried the rock 202 times for 1,009 yards and four touchdowns for the Giants during their Super Bowl season. In 2008, he bested those totals by rushing 219 times for 1,089 yards and 15 touchdowns.

But in 2009, his carries went up but his yardage declined. He rushed 224 times for 835 yards, which comes out to a paltry 3.7 YPC average. Making matters worse, he scored only five times while backfield mate Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 778 yards and seven scores.

Now Jacobs is pissed. He received only 10 carries in the Giants’ four preseason games, down from 21 totes last year. Meanwhile, he’s lost his starting job to Bradshaw, who is now New York’s featured back.

Following the team’s final preseason game last week against the Patriots, Jacobs had this to say to ESPN New York:

“No question,” Jacobs said. “To be in this business, you have to know that. No one’s your friend in this business. This is a cutthroat, backstabbing business. That’s just the way it goes. It’s been like that before me. If you expect anything else out of a business like this, you’re crazy.”

“It’s almost hard to stay positive in a situation like this, but that’s what I’ve got to do,” Jacobs said.

On Wednesday, Jacobs told the Newark Star-Ledger that people had made too big of a deal out of what he said:

“I’m happy,” the Giants’ leading rusher over the past three seasons said. “People get different things confused through words. That’s not the case. The case is I’m here to win football games and ride it on out with my teammates.

“People get things mixed up and make big deals out of everything that’s not even really what it is.”

Well, he didn’t look too happy during this locker room interview yesterday:

As with any athlete who is seemingly at the top of his game one moment and the next he’s being replaced, I feel for Jacobs. But like he said in his comments above, he knows what this business is all about. With how much money owners have invested in players and their franchises, which is why coaches and general managers can’t sit around and hope that a player is going to round back into form when they’re coming off a injury-riddled season like Jacobs is. Thus, that’s why Bradshaw is now the starter.

With that in mind, Jacobs has two choices. He can either pout and spend a miserable season in New York, or he can make the most out of the situation and realize that every offense in the NFL now needs two backs in order to be effective all season. It’s his choice though, and if he decides to go with option A then I can almost guarantee that he’s going to regret it sooner or later.