This year, the biggest drama surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers is whether veteran defensive lineman Cam Heyward will get a new contract. Although he’s practicing in training camp, Heyward was absent for almost all of the Steelers’ other offseason activities. With Heyward practicing now, it isn’t really as much of an issue, but it does resemble a situation the Steelers had to deal with concerning running back Le’Veon Bell once upon a time. Bell held out for the entire 2018 season because he and the Steelers couldn’t come to terms on a deal. However, it may not have been about the money at all for Bell.
Appearing recently on Antonio Brown’s podcast CTESPN, Bell discussed why he held out for an entire season, giving a surprising answer.
“It wasn’t really about the money with the Steelers,” Bell said. “It was about the principle. The principle is the first three years, I played out my deal, and the fourth year I’m supposed to be getting a deal. We at the table talking about the deal. We don’t end up coming to an agreement because I just wanted my guaranteed sum. They were giving me a contract, basically Monopoly money where, ‘We’re gonna give you this money, but this next year is not guaranteed, so we can cut you and we’re not tied to this money.'”
Although Bell says it wasn’t about the money, it sure sounds like the holdup was still related to money. Historically, the Steelers don’t put a lot of guaranteed money into deals for non-quarterbacks. T.J. Watt is about the only exception to that rule. For the most part, the Steelers do what they’ve always done and follow tradition. For Bell, that wasn’t good enough, and he decided to take his ball and go home and stay there, a decision he regrets now.
Bell explained why he didn’t trust that the Steelers weren’t going to cut him while he was in the middle of that deal.
“Everyone saying, ‘They ain’t gonna cut you,’ but we don’t know what’s gonna happen,” he said. “I had just got there, and I see them cut Troy Polamalu. Not cut him, but they kind of forced him out. I had just got there, and I see them do that to Troy Polamalu.”
It’s true that the way the Steelers and Polamalu parted ways after the 2014 season was not on the best of terms. While he is one of the biggest stars the team had ever had, Polamalu was beginning to show his age during the last few years of his career. Injuries had also taken their toll on his body, and the Steelers reportedly told him that he could either retire or they’d be forced to cut him. It wasn’t how Polamalu wanted to go out, but it seems the two sides have patched things up since then.
It sounds like that situation had a lasting impact on Bell. He was only going into his third year with the team when Polamalu retired, and he never forgot the way one of the Steelers’ biggest stars was treated when he became too expensive to keep.
As a running back, Bell dealt with a laundry list of injuries during his time with the Steelers, and that had to have an effect on his contract negotiations. The Steelers probably didn’t want to invest too much money in a player who had only played in one full season due to injuries and off-the-field issues. Bell probably didn’t want to risk losing out on most of his money if he suffered another major injury.
It was a standoff that left nobody happy and resulted in zero winners. The Steelers still refuse to give big deals to running backs, letting James Conner walk in free agency a few years ago and now putting Najee Harris in position doing the same after this season. For a team that wants its identity to be running the ball, the Steelers seem to forget the NFL is in an era where the bell-cow running back is obsolete. What’s done is done though, and moving forward, hopefully the Steelers don’t ever have to deal with a situation like this again.
