Quote:
Originally Posted by stevew
Bell screwed his leverage up by reporting last year. I understand he didn't have much money earned in his career at that point. A good agent would have made reporting last year contingent upon not being franchised/even not being exclusive franchised again this year.
But i think Bell's agent is about as talented of an agent as Bell is as a rapper so they're both getting played for ineptitude.
I don't think he should report until after the trade deadline without some sort of massive financial concession. They're likely to run him into the ground again and/or attempt to trade him once he reports.
Ultimately the whole thing is his fault for multiple drug suspensions, otherwise he would have gotten a more than fair upper market deal before his 4th season.
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I don't know Bell's agent beyond seeing a tweet kerfuffle leading into week 1 that made me think he shouldn't say anything publicly, but it's still tough for me to tie this into to him. The pressure on Le'Veon to report last year was enormous - from the media, from his teammates, maybe even from himself if he still liked the organization. If he had kept holding out he would've been given labels that are hard to shake.
But this year outside his OL being dicks and that one viral Steelers fan interview, public opinion is at least neutral if not in his favor. I have him on my fantasy team, and I hope he comes back, but yeah I get it if he doesn't until week 11. That's a massive shift in public perception.
(Also, neither of us will ever know for sure, but I think the drug suspensions are an easy thing for the Steelers to point to, and they never intended to give him huge guaranteed $$$... certainly not what he's asking for!)