So, Le'Veon Bell signs a four year, $52.5 million deal with the Jets. Last year, he turned down a five year, $70 million contract with the Steelers. I attempted to read an article on Deadspin that purported to detail how much money was guaranteed in each contract, but halfway through it, my eyes started watering and my head started to hurt, so I quit. I mean, who cares?
I will say this for Bell, he took a principled stand and sat out a year in order to get what he felt he was worth, so good for him. That he acted like knucklehead during his holdout with tweets from jet-skis and strip clubs, sort of takes some of the Sam Gompers/Curt Flood like aura away from him, but still, you got to hand it to a guy who passed on 14.5 million bucks. I am sure that the Steelers never thought it would go that far, and that, if they had it to do over, they would have traded him last summer for whatever they could have gotten (2nd round pick? 3rd round pick? a carton of jock straps?). And don't you think that the Steelers might have used some of that $14.5 mil of cap space last year to have helped the team during the season? Oh, well.
As it is, it certainly appears that Bell lost on the bet he made on himself. Of course, when you sort through what the guaranteed dough was from the Steelers and is from the Jets, maybe he didn't, but I am pretty sure that he will never recover that fourteen point five large he DIDN'T get paid by the Steelers last year.
I was going to say a "Final Word" on Antonio Brown, but, really, I am just tired of that subject. Instead, I will refer you to Joe Starkey's column in today's Post-Gazette. Says it all:
Yes, the Steelers have lost a couple of major talents in Bell and Brown, but they did play last season without Bell, and James Conner, notwithstanding a couple of devastating fumbles in key situations, pretty much replaced him without a beat. Brown's talents may be more difficult to replace, but let us all remember a critical number:
0 - The number of Super Bowls won by the Steelers with Bell and Brown in the lineup.
On another Steelers note, I was sorry to see that TE Jesse James has elected to sign as a free agent with Detroit. I know that the Steelers will move on from this, but I always liked James, and thought he was an asset to the team. I wish him well, and I hope that Vance McDonald can stay healthy for sixteen games next year.
Yes, this really WAS a catch!
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