Le'Veon Bell: Big Ben 'a factor' in leaving Steelers

[TD's & Beer]

Is Ben the reason the Steelers' 'Killer Bs' no longer exist in Pittsburgh?

Bell said Roethlisberger wasn't the singular reason in wanting to leave Pittsburgh, but "yes, it was a factor."

Bell took issue with how Roethlisberger handled his leadership role, which included sometimes blasting teammates during his weekly radio spot.

"Quarterbacks are leaders; it is what it is," Bell told Vrentas. "(But) you're still a teammate at the end of the day. You're not Kevin Colbert. You're not [team president Art] Rooney."

Elsewhere in the article, Bell admits had the Steelers structured their contracts with more fully guaranteed money, he'd have signed the deal last year, which suggests the issues with Roethlisberger's leadership tactics were a resolvable impediment.

Bell added that Roethlisberger is a "great quarterback" but often takes his biases and preferences with him between the lines.

"The organization wants to win. Tomlin wants to win. Ben wants to win -- but Ben wants to win his way, and that's tough to play with," Bell said. "Ben won a Super bowl, but he won when he was younger. Now he's at this stage where he tries to control everything, and [the team] let him get there."

Bell added: "So if I'm mad at a player and I'm not throwing him the ball -- if I'm not throwing A.B. the ball and I'm giving JuJu [Smith-Schuster] all the shine or Jesse [James] or Vance [McDonald] or whoever it is, and you know consciously you're making your other receiver mad but you don't care -- it's hard to win that way."

It's clear management has given Roethlisberger free rein to lead the Steelers how he sees fit, an autonomy earned by the future Hall of Famer. Perhaps that power led to the breakup of the top triplets in the NFL.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300...aving-steelers

-------------------

Here we go....again

[Fire Goodell]

Too many egos on one team. It's like the mid 2000's chargers. Teams of superstars rarely ever win championships

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

Somebody here should post an ad hominem attack of Bell, in an attempt to save Ben from this terrible slanderous attack. 3...2...1...

[vasteeler]

[Mojouw]

Wait. I thought they gave AB free rein to do it his way? But it is Ben's way?

Could these locker-room distraction stories please get their narrative straight.

Also, as I posted in the delicate flowers thread...these guys are confusing friendship with leadership. Notice how it is never "Ben didn't know the defensive key that is why he threw an INT right into the defenders chest." or "Ben didn't recognize that AB was breaking his route off in response to coverage and...." but instead is some version of "The dude who is a decade older than me isn't my BFF and somehow that makes me sad and angry at the same time so I've decided to lash out and be a pouty little man baby."

And then the media and fan base falls for this drivel- hook, line, and sinker and runs with it. "Tomlin has lost control of the room!" and "Ben is a poor leader" and "Steelers are the laughingstock of the NFL.".

Basically there is Twitter/Clickbait Headline truth and then there is reading the actual meat of these stories with any kind of skepticism and critical thought. I often wonder if the people interviewing these athletes are told not to push-back in their follow-up questions (or to not even have any!) in order to ensure future access or what?

But unless my brain is missing something, ALL of this critique of "leadership" has boiled down to "Ben R was not my friend and didn't view me as an equal". None of it has ever offered single nugget of football wisdom or events to support any of the touchy-fell blather. Couple that with the fact that in most models of leadership, the QB and the rest of the team wouldn't be equal. That is the entire point! The analogy of "field general" was chosen for a reason -- the QB runs the show, dictates the nature of things, and everyone else falls in line. It has been that way since at least the forward pass was popularized.

The funny bit of all of this, is that I have never really been on the "Ben R is a good leader and a decent person" side of the argument. I have long suspected and held the opinion that he is a pretty crappy dude and more than a bit of a phony. But between Bell and AB, I'm quickly being driven off that position, just because those two are too stupid to be associated with.

Think about it this way - AB and Bell are both essentially arguing that their production on the field as NFL players entitles them to big contract $$$ and a buy-in into team leadership. OK. Then maybe the guy who produces even more than you and has an even bigger contract gets even more of that EXACT SAME THING AND EXPECTATIONS YOU WANT FOR YOURSELF?! Morons. All of them. These guys are all just so damn dumb it is astounding. And these "reporters" just eat it up w/out question.

Real football games can't come soon enough.

[Fire Goodell]

Like I said, too many egos. Bell and AB are superstars not only in the league, but much more so in their own minds. They think the QB and everyone else has to worship how 'great' they are. When that doesn't happen, they of course don't like it haha.

I mean put it this way, the Steelers offering the biggest contract that LB received so far, and he says the organization is 'disrespecting' him? FFS man. He took an L signing a lower contract with the Jets and still can't point the finger of himself.

Of course, you can't ever expect a full blown narcissist to be all like 'you know what man, I messed up'

[AtlantaDan]

But unless my brain is missing something, ALL of this critique of "leadership" has boiled down to "Ben R was not my friend and didn't view me as an equal". None of it has ever offered single nugget of football wisdom or events to support any of the touchy-fell blather. Couple that with the fact that in most models of leadership, the QB and the rest of the team wouldn't be equal. That is the entire point! The analogy of "field general" was chosen for a reason -- the QB runs the show, dictates the nature of things, and everyone else falls in line. It has been that way since at least the forward pass was popularized.

AB had a plan to get traded and used "Ben is mean" as one tactic to get that to happen

Bell is just repeating what he heard AB say about Ben and throwing "Ben is a bad leader" onto the pile of excuses for a botched contract negotiation strategy that appears to continue to be made up as it stumbles along. Not a discouraging word about Ben from Bell until after AB pulled out all the stops to get traded

Apparently Bell was also vexed about this

He texted James Conner, his backfield replacement, congratulating him on big plays—but he also fixated on how much work Conner was receiving on the goal line, more than he’d gotten himself.

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/03/20/le...gency-contract

Not certain if he was fixated on Tomlin running the wheels off Conner too or fixated on Conner getting more opportunities to score, which would have degraded Bell's relative value.

But nobody ever paid Bell to be coherent

[hawaiiansteeler]

Somebody here should post an ad hominem attack of Bell, in an attempt to save Ben from this terrible slanderous attack. 3...2...1...

[El-Gonzo Jackson]

Thanks for picking up the spare.

[DesertSteel]

Here's what I posted in another thread. Neither of these two guys are worth expending additional effort on at this point (other than rooting for their demise).

Both Bell and AB are dicks. But I’m not going to entirely dismiss what they say about Ben. Because much of it rings true. I mean the general manager comes out in a public statement saying that Ben is the daddy and the other 52 are his kids. Is there more proof needed than that?

[stillers4me]

Hmmm....Hines Ward had a show. Jerome Bettis had a show.

Antonio Brown did not have a show. LeVeon Bell did not have a show.

But Ben has a show. hmmm......wonder how long before JuJu gets his own show.

- - - Updated - - -

And sometimes he gets it right.

[zulater]

Bullshit on Bell! If he thought for a second that the Steelers offer last summer would have been the best he would ever see he would have signed it in a heartbeat. But he and his agent had these delusions that he could get paid as a #1 back with the combined salary of a #2 receiver if and when he got to UFA. They misgauged the market. And they misgauged Bell's relative worth, completely dismissing the fact that he had two strikes in the NFL's drug program and that another slip will result in a year's suspension. He thought he would get Gurley money+ and he didn't even rate Gurley money. Truth be told it was Gurley's late summer signing that ultimately led to his decision not to report in time for the opener, as he claimed he would when the Steelers and he closed extension talks.

So if you are stupid enough to think Ben in any way factored into him ending up a Jet I've got some stock to sell you on cross Atlantic train bridge.

[Mojouw]

Glad to see Mark Madden's still on the pulse of the youth with a reference to a movie that is 10 years older than the player in question.

[EzraTank]

It's funny how Bell and AB threw Ben under the bus yet the two of them never lead us to anything. I don't remember Ben live streaming on FB from the locker room.


So glad they're gone.

[fansince'76]

Ben's silence about all this up to now has been pretty deafening. I truly hope he uses it as motivation to go out and stick it up the rest of the league's ass next year...

[DesertSteel]

Ben's silence about all this up to now has been pretty deafening. I truly hope he uses it as motivation to go out and stick it up the rest of the league's ass next year...

He’s saving his comments for his radio show lol.

[TD's & Beer]

Ben's silence about all this up to now has been pretty deafening. I truly hope he uses it as motivation to go out and stick it up the rest of the league's ass next year...

Win the SB with AB and Bell's back-ups.....that should light a fire under his ass! lol

[hawaiiansteeler]

[pepsyman1]

I can't wait to see what kind of year Bell has behind that shit show that the Jets call an offensive line. It'll be another asshole who finally realizes just how good he had it. Instead of getting $70 million over 5 years behind one of the best lines in football with a future HOF QB he'll get $52 million over the same time (4 year contract plus a full year without getting paid) and get to spend it in the snow globe that is NY with a kid QB behind an Oline that would be hard pressed to push a couple of tackling dummies out of the way on a ice rink. Good luck with that

[polamalubeast]

Too many egos on one team. It's like the mid 2000's chargers. Teams of superstars rarely ever win championships

Yes

Colin Cowherd was right when he said a few years ago that the steelers' locker room was like a locker room of the NBA ...... a lot of ego, but the difference is that in the NBA there is has only 15 players in a team and 8-9 players who plays in a game .... in the NFL it's completely different.

[hawaiiansteeler]

Jets not ready to say if Le’Veon Bell will play in the preseason

Posted by Michael David Smith on August 6, 2019

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...the-preseason/

[86WARD]

Jets not ready to say if Le’Veon Bell will play in the preseason

Posted by Michael David Smith on August 6, 2019

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...the-preseason/

The title you posted has nothing to do with th article.

[Hawkman]

The title you posted has nothing to do with th article.

Exactly what ‘86 said. Why, and what the hell.

[Craic]

Seems like it's fixed now... And interestingly enough, it's the coach wanting to keep him out so he stays fresh for the season.

[hawaiiansteeler]

The title you posted has nothing to do with th article.

I searched for "Le'Veon Bell" and this is what came up.