Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell shot back onto the radar of fans in western Pennsylvania yesterday when a report came out that the new head coach of his new team was not in support of his being brought in. This was met with a sense of schadenfreude and received as a dose of irony after he contrasted his feeling of being welcome in New York from his experiences in Pittsburgh in a post-signing interview.
Bell has gotten himself into the headlines quite frequently considering that it has been over 16 months since he last played in a football game. He made waves in his process of finding a new contract, which was relatively delayed, with the New York Jets essentially ending up bidding against themselves.
Reportedly, that was one of the reasons that they fired General Manager Mark Maccagnan, believing that, if they had waited, they likely would have been able to get Bell for less, as there did not appear to be any other serious suitors in his price range.
After he was dismissed, new head coach Adam Gase was announced as the team’s interim general manager, and a local beat writer reported that the Bell signing was one of the primary sources of tension between the two. Gase did not want to make that kind of investment at the running back position.
Of course Bell responded, taking to Twitter to address the report in a series of Tweets:
There’s been a BUNCH of false reports and speculation about me in the past about things I’ve said and done, so I’m used to this. I don’t jump to conclusions when I hear or see a story that may affect me.
— Le’Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) May 16, 2019
Even if reports are true, that won’t stop me from doing what I came here to do…everyone has a job to do, and I’m gonna do mine whether peopIe “like” me or not. I’m here to win football games.
— Le’Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) May 16, 2019
I’m sure there have been false reports and speculation about him in the past. But there has also been a lot of true reports and speculation. And it certainly wouldn’t be surprising if this report about Gase were indeed true. After all, there was a firing.
To hear him say that he’s “here to win football games” and suggesting that he’s not concerned with whether or not he’s liked is pretty rich given his behavior over recent years. The vast majority of the interview that he conducted after signing with the Jets consisted of how unwelcome he felt in Pittsburgh and how much he wanted to play for a team where he felt like he was wanted.
Many took those comments to be a justification for signing a contract that seemingly was no better, and perhaps even worse, than the reported numbers of the contract that he turned down last summer from the Steelers. And now he’s settling on going to a team who had the third-overall pick and saying he just cares about winning to justify signing with a team where, reportedly, the head coach didn’t want him to be brought in.
Make no mistake, this is far from the first time that a team signed a player that the head coach was less than on-board with. People in all walks of life work with people they didn’t choose to work with, but they make the best of it. Will this end up being a meaningful story? Only time will tell.
