Mark Madden: Le'Veon Bell has no one to blame but himself for career missteps

Several fallacies are being spoken about the shattered career of Le’Veon Bell.

One is that Bell somehow struck a blow for his profession’s laborers when he sat out the 2018 season after being franchised for a second time, thus forcing his way out of Pittsburgh and removing himself from under the thumb of the Steelers organization, which (gasp) wanted him to touch the ball a lot as per his job description.

The Steelers offered Bell $47 million over three years, with an admittedly minuscule $10 million guaranteed. Bell signed with the New York Jets for $52 million over four years, with $27 million guaranteed. That’s not much difference, especially since the Jets cut Bell on Tuesday. Bell also missed out on $14.5 million by skipping 2018.

When you go on strike, you’re supposed to make gains. Gains made by Bell were primarily via PR spin, not reality. Jimmy Hoffa wouldn’t be impressed. His payday duly noted, Bell chose perhaps the NFL’s worst work environment.

Another fallacy is others are to blame for Bell’s failures, whether it’s Jets coach Adam Gase, the Jets organization in general, Bell’s agent Adisa Bakari and, of course, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who (the story goes) ran Bell and Antonio Brown out of town.

Roethlisberger didn’t. If he had, he’d own it. He might even have T-shirts printed: “I ran the Toxic Twins out of Pittsburgh.” Heck, I’d buy one.

Bell might be incredibly immature and stupid, but he is a grown man. He makes his own decisions. Anything bad that’s happened is on him.

If you want to tack on another fallacy, it’s the notion the Steelers should recycle Bell. But don’t bother, because that has zero chance of happening (and shouldn’t).

The Steelers are 4-0 and, despite lesser weapons, are all pulling the same rope. Signing Bell would be like tossing a covid bomb in the middle of the locker room.

That brings us to the “I told you so” portion of today’s missive.

When Bell and Brown rose to prominence with the Steelers, I tagged them the “Toxic Twins” and predicted the Steelers would not win with two me-first idiots fouling the nest.

So it was said. So it came to pass. #SaveUs166

Bell and Brown might have helped some of you achieve fantasy-league Valhalla, but their occasional big plays and gaudy stats were undone by their egos and the distractions they created. The Steelers never made it to a Super Bowl with the Toxic Twins in significant roles, and it certainly wasn’t because the Steelers weren’t good enough.

Coach Mike Tomlin did an amazing job coaxing what he did out of those two jerks. Consider what’s happened since.

It amazes me that Bell and Brown still have local supporters, including among the media.

I see that Bell did right to railroad his way out of Pittsburgh because the Steelers were going to give him too many touches and break down Bell’s body before he could reach free agency. When Bell was a kid fantasizing about making the NFL, perhaps his dreams had a disclaimer: “Gee, I sure hope they don’t make me carry the ball too much and ruin my free agency.”

Bell’s year off did him no good, anyway.

Bell averaged 5.2 yards per touch and 129 yards from scrimmage per game during his five years in Pittsburgh. That latter stat was the highest in NFL history.

But after joining the Jets, Bell averaged 4.1 yards per touch, the league’s second-worst figure during that span. If the Jets misused Bell, remember: They were terrible before Bell arrived, and he still chose to sign there.

Bell has earned $44 million, and that should be enough to last his entire life. (I bet it doesn’t.) But he’s currently unemployed, has left a lot on the table and his next contract won’t be for crazy money. (If Bell gets another contract. Brown still hasn’t.)

Bell also capsized a likely Pro Football Hall of Fame career. But I doubt he cares about that.

Bell doesn’t love football. Maybe he did at one time, but no more. He sees football as a means to an end. As a money spigot to finance his other ventures, like his rise to fame via mumble rap. But the minute Bell is done with the NFL for good, no one will ever want to hear him rap again. (I’m no rap connoisseur, but Bell is comically bad.)

Bell is a good football player. Well, he was.

But barring a colossal attitude adjustment that seems mentally and emotionally beyond Bell, he’s likely to be remembered as a flash in the pan. A millionaire failure is still a failure.