There was a stretch of time in the mid-2010s in which RB Le’Veon Bell was one of the best players—not just running backs—in the National Football League. A second-round pick out of Michigan State in 2013, beginning in Year Two, he started to dominate the league and became the straw that stirred the Pittsburgh Steelers’ drink on offense when healthy.
He ultimately left over money, or more specifically guaranteed money, and now that he has been out of the league for a bit, he has since expressed some regret over leaving Pittsburgh and sitting out the 2018 season. While not formally retired, there’s only one team—and one man—he would still be interested in playing for at age 31.
“Honestly, I really only want to play with the Steelers. That’s it”, he told Rob Maaddi on the AP Pro Football podcast. “Unless I’m starting somewhere else, which I know that chance is very slim, like less than one percent, unless I’m starting, I’ll come back to the Steelers, that’s it”.
The former All-Pro did express his belief that he can still play, even if his life has now shifted focus to other projects such as boxing, music, and his new (work-safe, I would imagine) venture with OnlyFans. But if he were to play, he said the only man he would trust is Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, “the only coach who would give me an honest opinion”.
“He knows how I looked when I first came into the league and he can look at me now and compare and contrast”, Bell said. “That’d be the only coach I would be able to trust to do that. I wouldn’t want to play for nobody else. Not at this point. After everything I went through in this league, nah, I’m cool. I would only want to deal with Tomlin. That’s it”.
Bell played five seasons with the Steelers over 62 games in the regular season, rushing for 5,336 yards on 1,229 attempts. He also caught 312 passes for 2,660 yards, scoring 42 total touchdowns. His career average of nearly 129 yards from scrimmage per game while with the Steelers would have been the highest in NFL history—had he not played anymore. Jim Brown holds the all-time record at 125.5 yards per game.
But he balked at the Steelers’ contract offers under his two franchise tag designations, first in 2017, under which he played, and then in 2018, which he opted not to sign and sat out the season.
The following year, he signed a four-year, $52 million contract with the New York Jets, which included $27 million fully guaranteed at signing, compared to a deal offered by the Steelers that was reported to have included only $10 million fully guaranteed at signing, though also an additional $10 million that was practically guaranteed given the hardship the team would have faced otherwise.
Bell has since expressed great misgivings about playing in Jets head coach Adam Gase’s offense and how he was used there. He was ultimately released after playing just 17 games for the team, later signing with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he lost in the Super Bowl to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020. He never had nearly the same role, impact, or success outside of Pittsburgh.
He finished his playing career—for now—spending a period of time with the Baltimore Ravens and later joining Brady in Tampa Bay. His last touchdown came from Brady, but it seems clear the ones he’ll remember best are the ones from former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
