01:00 AM EST on Friday, December 23, 2005

BY TOM E. CURRAN
Journal Sports Writer

FOXBORO -- Second-year safety Guss Scott is a man whose NFL career was born under a bad sign.

A safety from Florida, the Pats spent a third-round pick on Scott in 2004. He and the Patriots agreed to a five-year rookie deal and sent it in to the league before the 2004 training camp began.

When the league sent the contract back -- which provided for a signing bonus in the neighborhood of $500,000 -- Scott and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, had second thoughts.

They opted not to sign the contract and let Scott play for the rookie minimum. As bad luck would have it, Scott blew out his knee in a Patriots exhibition game at Cincinnati, ending his rookie year. With the Pats holding Scott's exclusive rights, he again was playing for the minimum in 2005. Now he's blown out his other knee and again is on injured reserve.

"This is just something you have to deal with," said Scott. "You ask yourself why, but you can't prevent things. You can't wear braces all game. You just play the game and what happens, happens. I'm blessed just to be here with this organization and I'm trying to make the best of it."

Scott acknowledged that it feels a little like he hasn't yet started his NFL career.

"A little," he said. "I only played a few games. I'm learning the game but just being hurt and not playing is the hardest thing."

Scott said he has no regrets about not doing the five-year deal he initially agreed to.

"(No regrets) at all," said Scott. "There were things in the contract that would have balanced out had I gotten hurt. I'd have lost more money, too. The decision I made I don't regret at all."

Rosenhaus is a well-known agent for high-profile clients such as Terrell Owens. He certainly labored intensively to get Owens as much as he could from the Philadelphia Eagles (though that didn't necessarily work out so well). Did Scott feel that Rosenhaus did right by him last year?

"It was my decision, too, it wasn't just his decision," said Scott. "There was a lot of business stuff in there that I'd rather not say. Just a lot of terminology. I'm still going to feel the same. Financially, I'm not hurting. What hurts is that I'm not playing football."

Realistically, had Scott signed that deal, he would have gotten the $500,000 bonus and the two seasons' minimum third-round pay. By now, he would have made close to $1 million. Instead, he's made about half of that.

"If they had cut me I wouldn't get nothing, anyway," Scott reasoned. "I'd still be losing money with bonuses. I agree with (my decision) to this day."

Praise for Wilfork

Jets center Pete Kendall said second-year Pats nose tackle Vince Wilfork is playing much better at this point in the season than he was earlier.

"I thought he played a very good game against us (three weeks ago)," said Kendall. "Vince is still a bit of a younger guy and he's still learning his way, but you can see that he continues to get better. And when he tries to stay within their scheme and two-gap, he does a very good job of that. I think earlier in the year when he would try to pick a gap, sometimes he would be right and sometimes he would be wrong, and when he was wrong it wasn't always pretty. But of late he seems to be playing much more disciplined and much more effectively."