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Bart Scott back in Baltimore?

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When former Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan left the team following the 2008 season to become the head coach of the New York Jets, he famously showed up at Bart Scott’s house just after midnight as free agency began, to court the linebacker to join Gang Green.

Scott had spent the previous seven seasons as a Raven, after making the squad as an undrafted free agent out of Southern Illinois in 2002. A special-teamer for his first three years, Scott became a starter in 2005 and proceeded to start every game for the Ravens from 2006-2008.

Since becoming a Jet in 2009, Scott has played in 60 of the team’s 64 regular season games, starting 58 of those.

However, Scott was released on February 19.

And now, according to a tweet from Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead, Scott thinks he may be on his way back to Charm City.

Here are the quotes, from Kimberly Martin of Newsday:

“Why wouldn’t I love to go back to Baltimore? That was home,” the linebacker said, when asked if he’d be open to returning to the Ravens. “You never know where you might find me. We’ll see what happens. The New York media may not appreciate me, but if it happens, we’ll see who does.”

He admitted it was tough watching the Super Bowl, but he was happy for his former teammates and friends because “I know how hard we had worked and how close we had gotten. I say ‘we’ cause I was there with them for several years and I was a part of those hard losses. So it was good to see the ball finally bounce their way.”

With the Ravens losing Ray Lewis to retirement, and considering that there is no guarantee that they will be able to retain free agent Dannell Ellerbe (not to mention Jameel McClain’s health issues), the Ravens could certainly use a durable veteran inside linebacker.

However, would Scott be welcome back in Baltimore?

Not so fast.

First off, Scott bashed his former squad in 2010, saying that other Ravens players were “jealous” of defensive end Trevor Pryce, who signed with New York after being cut by Baltimore early in the season.

“I guarantee you that there’s probably guys in the same spot right now jealous as hell,” Scott saiid, per Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News.  “Trevor probably gets texts like, ‘Man, come get me too.’  I guarantee you there’s at least 15 other players over there praying to God that they get released for a half a day too, so they can come over here.”

Scott specifically thinks that Pryce jumped at the chance to play for Rex Ryan.

“That just shows you how much love people have for Rex,” Scott said. “I’m sure they had every intention of bringing him back on Monday.  But he picked Rex.”

In addition, Scott recently caused a stir in New York when he criticized Jets fans for jeering their team.

Bart Scott has a message for Jets fans who mercilessly heckled the team as it walked to the locker room at halftime following the 52 Seconds From Hell against the Patriots: He doesn’t care what you say or think.

“At the end of the day, if you made it to be able to put an NFL uniform on, then you are one of the best athletes in the world,” Scott told the Daily News. “The person yelling at you probably was picked last in dodge ball all through high school. So do you care about the opinion of them? No.”

This was after the infamous Mark Sanchez “buttfumble” game – come on, Bart…fans have every right to jeer after seeing THIS:

Scott was also fined last year for “flipping the bird” to a cameraman.

New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott was fined $10,000 by the team for flipping his middle finger at a news photographer Monday in the locker room, the team announced Thursday.

“Bart’s actions were inappropriate and unacceptable,” the Jets said in a statement.

It seems like Scott has done far too little growing up since his infamous flag-throwing incident at M&T Bank Stadium in a 2007 game against the New England Patriots. While this really comes as no surprise, considering that Ryan fosters that type of environment (or, did), Baltimore just isn’t that place any more.

Not under John Harbaugh.

Harbs preaches “Team,” and the organization has worked hard to shed the “bad boy” image they had under Brian Billick. Just today their class was on full display as they thanked the city of New Orleans for hosting Super Bowl XLVII.

Bart Scott is not a John Harbaugh-type of guy.

Finally, Scott got the second-lowest tackling efficiency grade out of 35 inside linebackers for 2012, according to ProFootballFocus. He missed 10 tackles against the run, more than every ILB except Jasper Brinkley.

In pass coverage, he wasn’t much better, giving up 1.21 yards per snap in coverage, ranking 43rd out of 48 inside linebackers (numbers again from ProFootballFocus and Gordon McGuinness).

While the team may have an opening (or two) at inside linebacker, it seems very unlikely that Scott will once again be occupying that spot.

Bart, Ravens fans will always be appreciative of you for giving us this…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZoDDYkoKi4[/youtube]

…but our old #57 jerseys are doing just fine collecting dust in the back of the closet. We have no plans to break them out again for game days.

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