As he attempted to clear out his locker on Monday morning, less than 24 hours after the Jets lost in Miami to finish 8-8 and out of the playoffs, Bart Scott just wanted to make a quick exit.
He hurriedly grabbed his items, dragging them over to a teammate’s locker to escape the horde of media surrounding Santonio Holmes’s locker a few spaces down. Throwing his belongings into a trash bag, Scott refused to address the media that trailed him and on the way out of the locker room he gave a photographer the middle finger. Scott’s words while flashing the gesture were “take a picture of this.”
The indiscretion led to a $10,000 dollar fine levied by the Jets on Thursday morning.
A league source, talking to Metro, said that the league will not be fining Scott further for his outburst. It was a team matter, the source said, and the league won’t interfere with their own punishment.
It has been reported that Scott could in fact be on his way out of the Jets for good and his locker, stripped bare by the linebacker before his hasty exit is perhaps a testament to this fact.
Scott, who has started every game for the Jets in his three years with the team, posted 4.5 sacks this past year, the second highest number of his career. But his 66 tackles was his lowest tally since 2004 and he was often exploited in pass coverage. He is projected to earn a $4.2 million dollar base salary from the Jets in 2012.
Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.
