The runaway linebacker
For my money, this
Bart Scott saga is turning into the melodrama of the day. According to a Ravens official I just talked to, Scott's agent,
Harold Lewis, indeed re-contacted Baltimore general manager
Ozzie Newsome about Scott right before Newsome was heading off to attend the
Domonique Foxworth news conference at Ravens headquarters.
The word is that Scott feels that Jets general manager
Mike Tannebaum has "reneged'' on some part of the contract that Scott thought he had already agreed to, and now Scott is re-thinking his decision. It could be the guaranteed dollars in the first two years of the deal, or some other less important detail; my source doesn't know for sure. The bottom line is that Scott feels some promises that were made have not come to fruition in the fine print of the final contract.
The Ravens, for their part, are monitoring the situation and asking to be kept updated, but Newsome has not taken Lewis' bait and raised Baltimore's offer, which is firm at five years at $37.5 million, with $24 million in the first three years of the deal.
But here's the craziest part of this story: This has happened with Scott before, where he got a case of cold feet right before being faced with leaving Baltimore. In 2006, Scott, then a reserve linebacker for the Ravens, was making a free agent visit to Cleveland, where the general manager was then
Phil Savage, the former Ravens personnel man. The Browns thought they had a deal done with Scott, but at the last minute he asked to use the bathroom and called Newsome from a men's room stall. He told Newsome he wanted to remain a Raven and asked for his best offer, and accepted it on the spot.
"You've heard of the runaway bride?'' the Ravens source said. "Bart's the runaway linebacker. He's done this before.''
So there you have it, up to the minute. Scott may be a Jet by the time you read this, or he may be speed-dialing Newsome back and returning to Baltimore. Maybe from the men's room of the Jets new team complex.
You can't make this stuff up.
-- Don Banks (4:20 p.m. ET)
Scott having change of heart?
Crazy stuff can happen on the first day of free agency. As we wrote earlier, Ravens linebacker
Bart Scott has been on the verge of signing with the Jets most of the day, having agreed to terms. But agreed to terms is not signed, and sometimes that can make for a big difference.
According to a
New York Daily News item this afternoon, Scott is making the Jets sweat out the contract agreement, having called Ravens general manager
Ozzie Newsome to give his old team a chance to match the Jets deal. Scott has been offered about $40 million over five years from New York, while the Ravens are said to have topped out at $37.5 million over five, but with $24 million in the first three years (for an average of $8 million over that span). The bizarre thing is that Scott, per the Daily News, is believed to be doing his last-minute negotiating with the Ravens from within the Jets facility, which if true, is kind of gutsy of him.
I just got off the phone with a Ravens official who had just come back from the
Domonique Foxworth introductory news conference and wasn't buying the late Scott flip-flop story.
"I honestly don't think there's any truth to that,'' he said. "If it happened, it happened while the press conference was going on.''
-- D. Banks (3:08 p.m. ET)
