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Bart Scott wants people to stop hating on Le'Veon Bell over his decision to skip last month's voluntary Jets minicamp.
In a passionate rant during Tuesday's "Carlin, Maggie and Bart show," Scott said Bell could very well be working hard away from the practice field to make sure he's ready for the upcoming season.
"Everybody believes that he's letting the team down, he's missing the opportunity to bond with his teammates, right?" the WFAN host and former NFL linebacker said. "Let me tell you something about playing running back in the NFL: You're going to get hit. If he's going to get 400 touches, he's going to actually get tackled at least 400 of those 430 carries unless he's walking into the end zone or running out of bounds. That takes preparation, and that takes building up callus around your body, your muscles, so that you can endure and withstand the punishment.
"Nobody gets beat up more than the running back. That's why their shelf life is shorter than everybody's."
Scott, who played four seasons for the Jets, said Bell probably has an annual workout bonus in his contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that he's forgoing.
"Just think for a minute: What sane person would forfeit a half a million dollars if it wasn't that improtant for him?" Scott said.
Scott added that what Bell is doing is not that unusual. He said he never saw many of his star teammates with the Baltimore Ravens at offseason conditioning, including Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs.
"Guess what? It's done differently at different places," Scott said. "So don't assume because you don't know. It's not the same everywhere. He's out there getting his work. Tell me one time when you saw Le'Veon Bell show up to a season that he didn't perform.
"He's going to be judged by what he does on the field."
Scott said he wasn't even aware of the Instagram response Bell sent to a fan Monday night, in which the running back wrote: "(W)hen it's time to play football...I got to stick to the formula that I know works for me to be the best player I can be...I'm not just tryna win football games, I want a ring! I want to desperately show everybody what I can what I can I can REALLY do...I'll take the heat right now, everybody will forget about that once January comes around."