Le’Veon Bell’s contract dispute with the Steelers morphed from your typical training-camp holdout into a season-long absence. It was a risky move that few around the Steelers thought was an actual possibility, and it turned out that Bell initially didn’t think so either.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Bell said that he only wanted to sit out during OTAs, training camp and into Week 1. But when Week 1 came along, he felt increasingly uncomfortable about risking injury.
That led to the season-long absence. He said via SI:
“At first I was literally thinking like, ‘I don’t want to play camp and OTAs’ because of the hurt in my body and I’m like, ‘I’m not playing,'” Bell told Sports Illustrated. “When Week 1 comes, I’m going to come, but the things that kind of led up to Week 1, I started thinking, ‘I’m not going to play Week 1.’ After even Week 1, it started to build up and it’s not making me feel comfortable.”
Bell added that he was ready to return at the bye week, but upon learning that the Steelers could still franchise tag him if he missed the whole season, he opted to not even bother.
The Steelers, though, decided to not place the franchise tag on Bell, leaving him free to sign the four-year, $52.5 million contract with the Jets.
Sports Illustrated will publish the full interview on Wednesday.
