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Steelers Le'Veon Bell's rookie skipped the entire training camp for the second year in a row, and for good reason. He was one of the best players in the league for most of his career, and the Steelers refused to reward him with a long-term contract, choosing instead to use it several times. Last summer, Bell ended his race in time to train with his team before week 1. This year, he pushed things a step further.
According to last year's schedule, everyone expected Bell to report to the team on Monday. This was not the case, which led Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert to issue a statement expressing his disappointment and forcing the rest of the team to claim to be totally cool with James Conner to the first week. The team captain, Maurkice Pouncey, told reporters that he was expecting Bell to be in the building on Wednesday. Well, today, Wednesday, and:
All of this excludes Bell playing at week 1, which may be the point. As long as he shows up on Friday or Saturday to take a physical and sign his franchise contract, he will get his play check of week 1 while being spared by 20 to 30 NFL punishments. Given how the Steelers treated him – he led the league with 406 really crazy touches last season and still could not be paid – it makes sense that he tries to spend this season with the least possible for another team to give him a big contract during the off-season. It will not be the idea of an inspiring swan song, but it's the one the Steelers deserve.
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