In the Jets' locker room after a playoff victory in New England in January, Scott was the first person talking to reporters, and he was also the last. When you have that much to say, you're not always right. In Scott's case, actually, he's usually wrong. Examples of that are not difficult to find on the Internet.
But in the case of Scott's most recent comments about the potential elimination of two-a-day practices in training camp, the outspoken veteran linebacker is absolutely right.
"I think it's wimping out, making football more soft," Scott told the Newark Star-Ledger. "No reason to try and make camp easy. … I get concerned you're making football players weaker because you don't push them past that threshold. … I get concerned with the same thing with the quarterback stuff, that they turn it into flag football. They turn it into little pansy stuff."
OK, calling quarterbacks pansies aside (you can't do that, Bartholomew), Scott has a point. Two-a-days are a staple of football, from high school on up to the pros. Enduring those grueling hours in the pounding August sun is the type of team-building activity that no motivational speaker could ever replicate. Those are the hours that separate professional football players from the rest of us. It's when leaders lead, and it's when players who show they aren't tough enough earn themselves a trip to the GM's office (bring your playbook, son).
"Two-a-days, it’s what football is all about," Scott told the newspaper. "It's about endurance, pain, will, putting yourself through something when your body is telling you it doesn't want to go. Your mind controlling your body. That's what camp is all about."
And it's not exercise for the sake of exercise. When you're on the field for every defensive snap, and the opposing team is working on a seven-minute drive, how can you be expected to make plays if you haven't brought yourself to that level before?
On top of that, the practice sessions are simply invaluable in a sport as tactical as football. Players aren't always Mensa candidates. Sometimes the best (and only) way for them to learn a playbook inside and out is on the practice field, where they follow their assignments, smash into their teammates, then help them off the ground. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until their brains are programmed properly.
The potential new collective bargaining agreement would call for non-contact walkthroughs to replace a second practice session. As anyone who's witnessed these walkthroughs in person can tell you, they are football's equivalent of practicing free throws.
That's not even mentioning that eliminating contact doesn't prevent injuries. Far from it. Mark Verstegen of Athletes' Performance said that 70 percent of NFL injuries occur during minicamp, which is made up of sessions that often don't include contact. The Patriots saw that two seasons ago, when linebacker Tyrone McKenzie tore his ACL at minicamp just a week after being drafted. Injuries happen, and contact at practice is often not the culprit.
For Scott to receive any criticism for wanting to practice is just wrong. This is the anti-Allen Iverson. This is a guy who's been in the league for nine years and has missed just three games. He'll turn 30 years old in August. He doesn't need more practice; he wants more practice. He knows the importance of practice, and likely remembers how valuable it was to him in his early years in Baltimore, when he was a special teams player fighting to earn his spot on the vaunted Ravens defense. It was that work in practice that eventually gave him a chance to shine. It was that work that made him an All-Pro and Pro Bowler in 2006. Those aren't the types of accomplishments that come just from showing up on Sundays — they come from showing up to practice as well.
It's not some leather-helmet enthusiasm for the days of yore, or some tired, old nonsense that promotes helmet-to-helmet hits and football players giving each other concussions. It's about keeping a part of football that is so vital to the sport, and it's about celebrating the fact that a veteran entering his 10th season still remembers that.
