Glauber: Scott still not over losing AFC Championship Game

FLORHAM PARK, N.J.

The pain is gone now, but the anger over the loss hasn't dissipated. It might never go away for Jets linebacker Bart Scott, who saw his dream of getting to his first Super Bowl fall one win short for the second straight year.

"I would have done anything to get there," Scott told me Thursdayafter a morning workout at the team's training facility. "If I lost a leg, I was willing to do it for the right to go to the Super Bowl."

Scott had a badly injured left ankle and wound up on the sideline for much of the Jets' 30-17 loss to the Colts in the AFC Championship Game. But it wasn't until Thursday that he detailed just how badly he was hurt throughout the Jets' improbable playoff run.

He suffered a high ankle sprain against the Bengals in the wild-card round but still helped the Jets win that game and beat the Chargers the next week. The injury was too much to overcome against the Colts, although he did force a first-half sack of Peyton Manning before eventually going to the sideline.

Scott said he took painkilling injections directly into the ankle for the Chargers and Colts games. He said those were the only times he ever did that in his NFL career. Scott said he probably would have missed at least two games if his injury had occurred during the regular season.

"I was willing to take whatever I had to," he said. "It was that important to me. I really didn't care what the repercussions were. I figured if I damaged it more, if I needed surgery, at least I could walk around with my Super Bowl ring and say, 'Who cares?' "

After the loss to the Colts, Scott left the locker room without speaking to the media, the only time he was silent after a game last season. I spoke to him briefly in the tunnel at Lucas Oil Field, but he had little to say. As it turned out, Scott was on his way to the X-ray room because team doctors feared he had fractured a leg. He had ligament damage but no fracture, and needed a month of rest to recover.

"I had a major ankle injury, basically a Dwight Freeney injury," he said. "I was taking whatever I could to deal with the pain. I just didn't have anything left in the Colts game. I felt I could help, but my ankle didn't want to do what I wanted it to do."

The week before the game, Scott knew he wasn't close to full strength. "I put my uniform on every day so you guys couldn't notice I was injured," he said. "I didn't practice, so nobody knew how serious it was. Nobody knew what I had to do to play, let alone walk."

The injury occurred on what Scott called a dirty play by a Bengal. "It was purposely done," he said. "I beat a guy on a block and he put his helmet on my ankle and rolled. I know who it is. It's over with."

But not the difficult memories of what came afterward. Especially the feeling of walking off the field after his second straight AFC Championship Game loss.

"You wait all that time for your opportunity to shine," said Scott, who was with the Ravens when they lost to the Steelers the year before. "It's disappointing to lose that game and see another team get the confetti."

He doesn't plan on having it happen again. This time, he's ready to enjoy the confetti shower.