visajets Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 As NFL lockout persists, Jets LB Bart Scott begins own offseason workout regimen Published: Monday, March 21, 2011, 3:57 PM Updated: Monday, March 21, 2011, 4:15 PM By Jenny Vrentas/The Star-Ledger John O'Boyle / The Star-LedgerJets LB Bart Scott said there are "ways around" losing the $250,000 bonus in his contract for participating in the offseason program -- of which players are currently locked out. In a peaceful labor landscape, Bart Scott figures NFL teams’ offseason workout programs would have started today. So the Jets linebacker began his workout and diet regimen this morning -- just not at the team’s facility. After the league imposed a lockout nine days ago, once negotiations with the NFL Players Association for a new collective bargaining agreement broke off, 1,900 players will be making their own training arrangements. To Scott, who estimated he spent $30,000 on supplemental training outside the Jets facility last year, this spring doesn’t feel too out of the ordinary yet -- particularly after his seven years in Baltimore, during which he said the team’s marquee players usually dispersed across the country for their own offseason training, leaving mostly young guys at the team headquarters. “The only unfamiliar thing to me would be if we don’t have OTAs,” said Scott, who is training at TEST Sports Clubs in Martinsville with teammates Vlad Ducasse and Jamaal Westerman. “Right now, we’re not missing out on anything except free agency. Everything else, I don’t think it’s panic time yet. Technically, if the lockout were over with after the draft, really what have we missed? Some workouts.” “Now the later it gets, then you have to start deciding what you’re going to do. When are you going to make the transition to doing football moves and stuff? You know it’s time for your body to start doing football stuff. But right now, it’s just getting in shape, getting your muscles right, and building your foundation.” Organized team activities are generally held in May and June. There are no certainties on if and when the labor dispute will be settled, though a hearing in federal court was scheduled for April 6 for the antitrust suit the NFLPA filed against the league. One thing Scott is at risk of missing the longer the lockout drags on? A $250,000 workout bonus. An ESPN report last week listed several players who have bonuses in their contract tied to participation in the offseason program – including Scott, whose check is tied to 85 percent participation, and left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, whose $750,000 bonus for 85 percent participation is highest in the league. “I’m not going to worry about that until we get there -- if we ever get to that point,” Scott said. “There’s ways around that type of stuff. That’s not my concern. My concern is getting the deal set, so we can come in and play football. All the other stuff, at some point, everybody has to lose something. The main goal, the main focus, is getting back to football, getting back to your teammates.” Scott’s agent, Harold Lewis, pointed out the losses players have taken in several areas, including the elimination of certain benefits in 2010 and the change in free agency rules that made fourth and fifth-year players restricted free agents instead of unrestricted last year. He expects those issues, as well as the payment of workout bonuses players may not have the chance to earn if there is no offseason program or may have a harder time earning if it is shortened, would be addressed in a new labor deal. “There are options,” Lewis said of how those payments could be handled. “The player should not have to forfeit that money. Somehow, some way, that money has to be given back to the players, because they’re not in the breach of their contracts.” In the meantime, Scott is focusing on the workouts he can do. At TEST Sports Clubs, which works with athletes ranging from youth to pros, he will train five days a week, including strength and conditioning work for more than 90 minutes four times a week and yoga on Wednesdays. The club offered a “lockout special” half-price fee for athletes enrolling in the month of March. Pro athletes are permitted to write off 100 percent of their training expenses on their taxes. Scott was recently in Florida at Jason Taylor’s golf tournament to benefit his foundation, and said he has periodically been checking in with many of his teammates. He said no definitive plans have been made for the players to organize their own football workouts, but if the lockout stretches on, “it’s just a matter of sending out a mass text.” Scott said he didn’t see the letter commissioner Roger Goodell sent to the players last week. “Maybe he doesn’t have my address?” he said, admitting that he could have missed the message in his crowded e-mail inbox. He didn’t see the response from the NFLPA, either. Scott just knows he has to be ready for the work stoppage to end, and he expects the Jets as a whole will be in fine shape if and when that happens. “I’m not worried about (my teammates) finding a place to work out; if anything, they may work out harder because they know they have to be ready,” Scott said. “We have familiarly; we don’t have a situation like two years ago where trust had to be built between the head coach and new players. Pretty much everybody trusts each other, everybody is comfortable with the system, has an idea of the system.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visajets Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 I live 5 minutes from the place those guys are working out at. Maybe I should join them... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RutgersJetFan Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Leading by example as always. One of the best FA signings ever for this franchise. For contributions on the field and unintentional comedy equally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damaged89 Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Leading by example as always. One of the best FA signings ever for this franchise. For contributions on the field and unintentional comedy equally. to be fair I'm pretty sure alot of the comedy is intentional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doggin94it Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Btw, if the bonus is really for 'percent attended', he should get it; he'll have gone to 100% of the workouts actually held. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larz Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 he's not doing suicides ? pussy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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