That is a stretch to think he meant that they would knock the Pats out of the playoffs rather than a thinly veiled threat.
...Now if anything becomes of this, that can be the argument Scott and the Jets make. Goodell is all about player safety and threating to end an other player's days in an uniform to the press is not something he wants to have happen.
I think you are giving Scott far too much credit.
All I give Scott credit for is being aware of the second of your paragraphs that I quoted above.
"Days in uniform are numbered" is stupid, in terms of a "pun," but then, I do give people too much credit. The thing is, pun or no pun, "numbered" modifies "Days", above, not "uniform." But something tells me Scott has trouble reading Xs and Os, never mind sentence diagramming. "But that's ungrammatical" would probably evince a response involving place kickers.
So, I don't think it was about numbers sewn on a jersey, but I will have to read the link rather than the quote. Evidently there's some support there, who knows.
Either way, what's happening here is exactly what I outlined:
Wes makes puns. The puns can be read as:
1) not there, or
2) coded teasing
The response can be read as:
1) not there (via a stretch,) or
2) I will cripple Wes Welker.
Thuggish? Sure. But you have to figure that if Bart Scott actually succeeds at actually injuring Wes, even a mildly bell-ringing hit delivered in a way that runs afoul of the rules, he has the
least plausible deniability of any person on that field tomorrow. Additionally, anybody else headhunting, or appearing to headhunt, is pretty much set up to be looked at hard by the league, even WITH their boy in the Commish's office.
My guess? Sure they hate Wes, cuz he tweaked 'em. But a helmet-to-helmet fine will be in the back of every Jets' mind, such as they have, thanks to Bart's usual mis-placed thuggery (he of the throw-the-flag-into-the-stands final nail in the Ravens' coffin in 07.)
PFnV