Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell hasn’t had much of anything to do with football for a while now. The last time that he took the field for a game was in early January of 2018 when the Steelers lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Round of the postseason. Bell played well in that game, scoring twice, but that is the last anyone has seen of him participating in football activities.
We already know the story behind that, so there’s no need to rehash it now. But as he is set to hit the open market for the first time of his career since being drafted in 2013, now having freshly turned 27, there are growing questions about what kind of shape he’s in. there was even a report that he weighed 260 pounds recently.
That is something that he poked fun at just yesterday in an Instagram story. “Hey, I don’t know where I should go”, he said, referring to his future team. “Wherever I do go, just know I’m gonna be ready, ‘260’ and all. I’m gonna be ready”.
So it appears as though he is not going to abandon his future in the NFL just yet for a rap career. And his trainer had already previously refuted the report, speaking to a reporter with the NFL Network to set the story straight. Pete Bommarito told him that “he was never at 260 pounds. He called the entire idea ‘ridiculous and laughable’”.
“He’s going to be the same Le’Veon Bell — only better, quicker and faster.”
Bell’s trainer responds to “ridiculous” speculation about the soon-to-be free agent’s shape, pointing out he’s feeling better in February than guys who played last season.@NFLTotalAccess @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/B5UlVZItIz
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 22, 2019
“According to Bommarito, they have followed the same plan with Bell this year that they have every other year, with one key difference. Unlike very other veteran player who is training right now, Bell has spent the entire month of February in a massive recovery and regeneration mode”.
“Of course teams are going to have questions about Le’Veon Bell and what he’s been up to during his time away in terms of exactly where he’s at, in terms of what shape he’s in, and his conditioning”, he went on. “One thing those teams are going to hear from Bell’s representatives is most NFL running backs don’t have time in one NFL offseason to completely heal their bodies. Bell on the other hand hasn’t been hit in over 13 months. He just turned 27 years old. And Bommarito told me, nothing’s changed, he’s going to be the same Le’Veon Bell, just better, quicker, and faster”.
While it’s true that his body hasn’t taken the abuse of an NFL season since the 2017 season, and other players have come back to play well after missing time, it remains to be seen with Bell. It’s quite possible that he resumes his place as one of the best players in all of football.
And no matter what weight he’s at, or has been, I really don’t have any doubt that he can, you know, lose some weight by September. He turned down over $14 million last year because he believed in himself. He’s going to put in the work to earn that huge contract.
