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Le'Veon Bell sends a bold threat to Steelers if he doesn't get his way

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Le’Veon Bell is using his negotiating power as the best running back in football to tell the Pittsburgh Steelers that if they try to put the franchise tag on him this offseason, he’ll retire or hold out for a full season to shake free of the tag and control his football destiny.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I would definitely consider it,” Bell told reporters before Thursday’s practice.

Last year, the Steelers tagged Bell, making his 2017 salary $12.1 million. This year, they may seek to do the same during the free agent negotiating period, locking in Bell at the expected tag number of $14.5 million for the 2018 season. They can do this between Feb. 20 and March 6, then both sides are on the clock to get a deal worked out by the deadline of July 16.

Bell is having none of it.

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He turned down a contract that would have paid him $30 million in the first two years during the negotiations at the end of his rookie deal precisely because he thought it wasn’t enough to properly reflect what he brings to the table on the field.

When asked what it would take to get him to sign a long-term deal with Pittsburgh, his response was simple:

“Value me.”

What is that value? Last July, Bell’s former teammate, Ike Taylor, reportedly said Bell wanted to be paid the salary of a No. 1 running back plus that of a No. 2 wide receiver.

Do you think Le'Veon Bell is worth more than $14.5 million next season?

On Thursday, Bell said, “Just get the numbers straight, exactly where we want them. I’m not going to settle for anything. I know what I do and what I bring to the table. I’m not going out here getting the ball 400 times if I’m not getting what I feel I’m valued at.”

While most of us can’t relate to anyone turning up his nose at $14.5 million a year, his stance does make a certain amount of sense.

Running back is one of the most punishing positions in football. Bell ran the ball 321 times and caught 85 passes during the regular season, and given that he scored 11 times, that’s 395 times where he was either tackled or shoved out of bounds.

Considering he’s already worth millions of dollars, having made $16 million in his career so far, why should he risk his body and mind unless the money involved is what he thinks he’s worth? Past a certain point, the Steelers need him a lot more than he needs them, and you can’t blame a 25-year-old man for thinking about his long-term health, which ultimately cannot be bargained at any price.

Bell, talking about the franchise tag, said, “It will eventually come down to me playing on the tag or not. They tag me again, it will be me saying, ‘OK, do I want to play on the tag or do I not want to play on the tag?’ That’s what it comes down to. If I was a free agent and they let me go, be a free agent, then yeah, I’m going to go explore free agency, test the market.”

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He also addressed the subject of his health, particularly in light of the fact that he has an infant daughter born last year.

“I’ve made a lot of money, I’m happy where I’m at, I’ve got a good family — I don’t really need to play football,” Bell said. “Right now, I’m just kind of doing it because I love it. Now, I’ve done everything but won a Super Bowl.

“I don’t necessarily care about the money aspect of it. I just want to be valued where I’m at. If I am playing this game, I want to set standards for all the other running backs behind me, like Todd Gurley and Ezekiel Elliott, Melvin Gordon, guys like that. I’m a guy they can kind of look at. I feel I can do that. I’m in a position where I can do that, and I’m going to do it.”

Even though Bell has played only five years in the league, he’s looking to Barry Sanders for his inspiration; Sanders left the game at age 30 after 10 years in the league because he was tired of dealing with Detroit Lions management.

Said Bell, “It’s about leaving a legacy. People will always remember what you did. That’s why I run the way I run. I feel like I wanted to run differently than everybody else did. And I want to do things that everybody else hasn’t done. That’s how I’ve envisioned everything going forward.”

Besides Sanders’ 10-year career, one of the greatest of all time, Jim Brown, played only nine seasons in Cleveland before deciding that he had better things to do with his life than give his body to a sport that wasn’t giving him what he felt he deserved.

And while Bell’s probably not headed for the Hall of Fame quite yet, he seems to be quite at ease with the idea that five years is enough football if it comes to it.

Then again, he’s not closing the door on things completely; after all, if the Steelers play the negotiating game by Bell’s rules, he’ll be quite content to try and get that Super Bowl ring and the milestones for yardage and touchdowns that would ensure his enshrinement on a warm summer day in Canton someday.

Bell, after all, left things open and essentially said “your move” to the Steelers:

“I want to be here, finish my career here. But if not, I’ll just handle it however I’ve got to handle it.”

After some blowback, Bell took to Twitter to say his focus is on the here and now, not next season.

Time will tell whether Pittsburgh’s playoff run, which starts Sunday at Heinz Field against Jacksonville, will be the end of Bell’s time in the NFL.

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Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Birthplace
Boston, Massachusetts
Education
Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University of Nevada-Reno
Location
Seattle, Washington
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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