The tragedy of former NFL running back Le'Veon Bell is a story most football fans have heard of. If you're a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, it played out more like a comedy.
Bell played five seasons in the Steel City and quickly became one of the league's top rushers, earning first-team All-Pro status in 2014 and three Pro Bowl selections (2014, 2016, 2017) in that span. He missed the 2018 season entirely due to a contract holdout.
On Saturday, Bell quoted a video by ML Football on X where two podcasters discussed his career and his crash out after leaving Pittsburgh after the 2018 season. He wrote, "Adam Gase happened," to answer their query over why that crash out happened.
Who's really to blame for Le'Veon Bell's short-lived NFL career?
Bell, now 33 years old, spent three more seasons in the league with four different teams before being released in 2022 and calling it quits. His rushing style of hanging back behind his offensive line and shooting the gap that it presented helped him accrue 6,554 rushing yards in his career.
But that eventually led to his downfall, considering 81 percent of his rushing yards (5,336) came in Pittsburgh. His stints with the New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers were severely paled in comparison.
Specifically, while in New York, then-head coach Adam Gase infamously under-utilized his abilities, and the lack of a strong offensive line eventually resulted in a falling out between the two and Bell's release. That led to a lot of animosity between the former Steelers running back and his head coach with the Jets. It also undoubtedly marked the downturn of his career, for which Gase took zero accountability.
"I hate that's the route that we go with all of this instead of just talking to me about it, but it is the way guys want to do it nowadays," Gase said in 2020 of Bell liking a tweet suggesting he should be traded.
So, clearly, Bell hasn't forgiven or forgotten that time in his career. It lends more credence to the tragedy label to his career, considering, had he not held out with Pittsburgh, he potentially could've wound up one of the all-time greats of that franchise. But now, we'll just never know.