All seemed to be going as planned for the Jets’ second practice of training camp on Friday. That was until about 20 minutes in when running back Le’Veon Bell disappeared from the field.
Following team stretches, Bell was seen jogging off the field and into the building at One Jets Drive. Roughly 35 minutes elapsed before the Jets’ offensive juggernaut returned to the practice field – just in time, as he joined team drills with a handoff from Sam Darnold.
Where did Bell run off to? Adam Gase was kind enough to shed some light on the situation.
“Every once in a while, we have the league come in and they do their yearly drug test and stuff like that, so he had to get it done at a certain time,” Gase told reporters.
Drug tests are routine in the NFL, but they haven’t always gone well for Bell. The 27-year-old has been suspended twice, a two-game suspension in 2015 and a four-game ban in 2016, both for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.
After Bell signed a lucrative four-year, $52.5 million contract with New York this past offseason, Gase and company have to hope that those days are behind him.
