Pittsburgh Steelers’ regular season is just days away and their star running back Le’Veon Bell is nowhere to be found. Bell decided to hold out from all the team’s offseason activities in order to force the organization to give him a new deal and has failed to report to Steelers’ facilities since the start of the training camp. As you can guess, this didn’t sit very well with the organization.
“We are disappointed Le’Veon Bell has not signed his franchise tender and rejoined his teammates,” – said Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert in a statement. “Coach [Mike] Tomlin and the coaching staff will continue to focus on preparing the players on our roster for our regular-season opener on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns.“
This is the second time that Le’Veon Bell is absent during the preseason, as he held out the previous year as well. In 2017 he showed up in time to start from Week 1, but there are indications that he might not take the same route this year. If Bell ends up deciding to skip regular season games, he faces with a hefty loss of $855,000 per game.
Bell is looking to be the highest paid running back in the history of NFL and is reportedly asking $17 million annually. Steelers, on the other hand, were willing to go as high as $14 million per year.
Pittsburgh Steelers and Le’Veon Bell had time until the end of July to agree to an extension, and since they failed to do so, the two parties can’t get a new deal done until the end of the season. That means that Bell isn’t forcing a new contract now with his absence, but rather making a statement to the organization.
