Will Le'Veon Bell Play Football This Season?
By: Omar Cook
The Pittsburgh Steelers are 0-1-1 after dropping their home opener to the Kansas City Chiefs, 42-37 and ending the season opener in a tie with the Cleveland Browns. After an almost non existent rushing performance against the Chiefs, it’s safe to say the Steelers could use their all-pro runningback. Le’Veon Bell continues to make his case for a long-term deal instead of signing his $14.5 million franchise tag and plans on continuing his holdout going into week 3.
It doesn’t seem Bell is too pressed about not being in uniform right now though as he is sitting back living his best life right now. Bell celebrated the release of his new music project, "My Side of Things" EP at Rockwell nightclub in South Beach while also taking some time to go jetskiing earlier in the day.
After being franchise tagged for the second straight season, it’s understandable that Bell is frustrated as he is looking for a long term deal that will pay him more, and deservingly so. In the past 2 seasons, Le’Veon Bell has accounted for 3830 total offensive yards and 20 touchdowns. Bell is definitely a dynamic athlete that deserves a big time pay day but at this point, it seems as if both sides are being very petty.
The NFL ranked Bell as the fifth best player on the top100 players list in 2017, but didn’t even rank in the top 50 highest paid players. So to his defense, he’s right, he should be getting paid. Todd Gurley signed a 4 year, $60 million deal with $45 million guaranteed and a $20 million signing bonus. To say that Le’Veon Bell doesn’t deserve this kind of money is an understatement, so this explains the waiting game. Le’Veon Bell holding out for this long is a huge statement by an individual, but it is a move that is definitely warranted.
To make matters worse, star receiver Antonio Brown was a no show at practice on Monday after the week 2 loss. The Steelers can’t afford to lose anymore star power at this point. A far as we know, Bell isn’t showing up until he gets paid so it’s hard to say if we’re going to see him in a jersey this season at all. Unfortunately, this is the ugly side of the NFL where the business part can take away from the raw passion of the game.
The Steelers are going to need the tandem of Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown if they want to make a case for AFC North champions this season. James Conner is a great addition to the Steelers but he’s no Le’Veon Bell and all should Steelers fans should be praying that both sides can come to an agreement so that we can see some electrifying plays in the run game this season.
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