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Bell sorta admits he screwed up

CoolieMan

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obviously, I (we, whoever) wish things would’ve played out differently in 2018, like if I legit had a time machine to go back to 2018, that would be soo litttt for soo many reasons but I don’t …
 
Obviously, he won’t be honest with himself and say ”me and me alone made that decision” that played out in 2018. Everyone was telling him to take the contract offer. Hell, even his own agent told him to, and his mother begged him to.
 
It's hard to say what any of us would have done in that situation at the time of it in our lives. Hind sight is 20 / 20. He had a a good support system in place but chose not to listen but instead took advice from some bonehead about slavery. His "smoke" useage didn't help in the decision making either.

His "boxing" career will be short lived because if he actually gets serious, his opponents will be a hell of a lot better than Yo Adrian.



Salute the nation
 
I still can’t believe how INSANELY talented we were between 2010 and 2017 and couldn’t win another chip. Just goes to show how important roles and team chemistry are in being the best.
If we had a Mincah on the team 2016-2017 one could argue that that would get us to 7. but we will never know
 
Sounds like he was too worried about getting injured. Football is a brutal and tough game, but they are paid millions to do it. The Steelers would have set him up and he would have had a pretty good career here, but he bet on himself and lost a lot of money.
 
The franchise tag and negotiating with Bell was a mistake. We should have traded him if possible. He's was DONE as a player then and is now looking to turn into the circus like career of Boxing. Some tell him quick the legal prize fighting is serious business and not for guys just looking to get your dime who never fought professionally.
 
Screw Bell! Who cares! Another dumb *** who didn't realize how well he had it and now realizes he screwed-up. Good luck with your boxing career since your football career is over.
 
The franchise tag and negotiating with Bell was a mistake. We should have traded him if possible. He's was DONE as a player then and is now looking to turn into the circus like career of Boxing. Some tell him quick the legal prize fighting is serious business and not for guys just looking to get your dime who never fought professionally.
In hindsight maybe, at the time it wasn’t so clear cut. Had he taken the contract and played that season he may be an entirely different player right now. Tomlin and the Steelers knew how to use him best. In fact he spoiled them and they never adjusted back to what a normal running back is like and it hurt the running game when Conner, who could do most of what Bell could do, couldn’t stay healthy.
 
Bell.. schmell. His greed & pride drove his decisions and now he has to live with it. I'm rootin' for the dude wearing #22 who's now toting the rock for the black & gold. That's all that matters now.
 
In hindsight maybe, at the time it wasn’t so clear cut. Had he taken the contract and played that season he may be an entirely different player right now. Tomlin and the Steelers knew how to use him best. In fact he spoiled them and they never adjusted back to what a normal running back is like and it hurt the running game when Conner, who could do most of what Bell could do, couldn’t stay healthy.

No, he wasn't going to stay good and was a diva distraction. Bell, Brown, and potentially Claypool. He held a gun to our head and demanded more.

Tomlin has lots of diva players and doesn't handle them well. A knock on him. Cowher would not bend over to players that are divas.

As I said I wish we traded him back then.
 
I've always believed that the 2011 Steelers were better than the 2010 team, although as it was the end of the run of that core group, they were a lot like the 1979 Steelers in that regard. And they did have to go through a bit of transition to start the season so it was a tough 2-2 start. Two things that really helped the Steelers - particularly on offense - over the next 10 weeks: similar to Bettis ceding his role as the primary RB to Parker, Ward ceded to Brown and Ben resumed the trajectory he was on in 2009, given that he was not under the spectre of the Midgeville incident.

The injuries to Mendenhall and Ben before the playoff game in Denver really were devastating and the loss to Baltimore with 8 seconds left - the only time Ben lost to the Ravens in the last minute - but us down 0-2 to the Ravens, and made a 12-4 team that easily would have been 13-3 and the #1 seed otherwise, obviously proved too much to overcome.

I have often said that the 2017 Steelers were the most talented Steelers team I’ve ever seen. That excludes the 78/79 teams as I wasn’t old enough to appreciate or understand what I was watching with my dad.

Still, most talented doesn’t mean the best team. There was a closeness & chemistry that existed on the 2000s teams (and 1990s teams) that never quite happened with the 2014-2018 teams, despite being loaded with talent. They won more because of individual talent, but never quite felt like a united team that had the drive to win the Super Bowl as a unit.

Just compare the 2005 Steelers to the 2017 Steelers.
In 2005, the Steelers strength was a dominant defense full of team leaders and an elite OL. From a skill player standpoint, with the loss of Burress to FA, there was only one "skill" player with experience in their prime: Hines Ward. Bettis was the short yardage back, Randle El was not a great #2 WR and while extremely talented - Ben, Parker and Miller were ascending to their prime not there yet. However, together they were more than the sum of their parts and were really a tough team to beat.

In 2017, the Steelers strength was the explosive offense with stacked with AB/JuJu at WR, Bell at RB, and Ben at his peak years at QB with an elite OL. The defense was not at the level as the 2005 unit, and the Shazier injury was devastating, but still had some great talent on it. But they never truly came together as a unit and were individuals more than the sum of their parts. The 3 games winning vs. teams with backup QBs who they should have blown out and instead needed to win with a Boz FG with 0:00 seconds left. They just never put it all together and hence, lost to a Jags team they were already looking past.

Then the drama really started to come out.

I hear ya. The drama started to come out. The Steelers team in 2017 had a lot of talents and we've got nothing to show for it. That's coaching, and a bad team culture ( which the head coach creates ) unlike the teams for the 1990's and 2000's. Tomlin inherited Bill Cowher's players and once they aged the culture and team leadership went away another reason why Tomlin hasn't won a playoff game since 2016 and isn't likely to win one is the 2022 season.

A knock and a factual one on Mike Tomlin. We are no longer NFL relevant we are but one of 7 teams not to win a playoff game since 2016. And they're all doormats for a long long time.
 
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No, he wasn't going to stay good and was a diva distraction. Bell, Brown, and potentially Claypool. He held a gun to our head and demanded more.

Tomlin has lots of diva players and doesn't handle them well. A knock on him. Cowher would not bend over to players that are divas.

As I said I wish we traded him back then.
Totally disagree, I think exactly the opposite that Tomlin handles them extremely well and gets far more out of them than they produce after they leave here. The preponderance of the evidence is on my side on this. AB, Bell all fell of the face of the earth without Tomlin coaching them and keeping them in control. They play elsewhere they may never have amounted to anything to start with.
 
Totally disagree, I think exactly the opposite that Tomlin handles them extremely well and gets far more out of them than they produce after they leave here. The preponderance of the evidence is on my side on this. AB, Bell all fell of the face of the earth without Tomlin coaching them and keeping them in control. They play elsewhere they may never have amounted to anything to start with.

Oh sure, other heads coaches don't have this many divas especially with star players. Why is that? You want to control them, then bench them a game while acting up right away. It will hurt their stats which is what they care about anyway. When drafted players are mostly fine. It this culture of me 1st team 15th that for some reasons infects the Steelers as bad any team in the NFL. Sure, it's an accident. Sure. It has nothing to do with Tomlin being a " player's coach ".
 
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No, he wasn't going to stay good and was a diva distraction. Bell, Brown, and potentially Claypool. He held a gun to our head and demanded more.

Tomlin has lots of diva players and doesn't handle them well. A knock on him. Cowher would not bend over to players that are divas.

As I said I wish we traded him back then.
I dunno about that Coach... I seem to remember forum posts referring to Cowhers training camps as camp cupcake. Some people would lose their minds over Cowher taking the players to the movies. As far as AB is concerned I don't believe anyone, including Cowher, could have contained him .
 
The franchise tag and negotiating with Bell was a mistake. We should have traded him if possible. He's was DONE as a player then and is now looking to turn into the circus like career of Boxing. Some tell him quick the legal prize fighting is serious business and not for guys just looking to get your dime who never fought professionally.
How many times do you have to be told this? A dozen posters and Mods have explained this to you time and time again, you can’t trade a franchise player unless he signs the tag. Bell never did sign his tag. Therefore, he couldn’t be traded. We will never know if he was done when he declined the last offer. All we know is he went from having one of the best OL blocking for him to one of the worst with NYJ.
 
Oh sure, other heads coaches don't have this many divas especially with star players. Why is that? You want to control them, then bench them a game while acting up right away. It will hurt their stats which is what they care about anyway. When drafted players are mostly fine. It this culture of me 1st team 15th that for some reasons infects the Steelers as bad any team in the NFL. Sure, it's an accident. Sure. It has nothing to do with Tomlin being a " player's coach ".
Sure they do as I have proven to you in the past. You are so off base with your proximity bias. We have less problems over the last decade with players than all the other teams in even our division or at least no worse. You just don't pay any attention let alone watch the games.
 
Oh sure, other heads coaches don't have this many divas especially with star players. Why is that? You want to control them, then bench them a game while acting up right away. It will hurt their stats which is what they care about anyway. When drafted players are mostly fine. It this culture of me 1st team 15th that for some reasons infects the Steelers as bad any team in the NFL. Sure, it's an accident. Sure. It has nothing to do with Tomlin being a " player's coach ".

Michael Irvin, Terrell Owens, Deion Sanders, Randy Moss, Antonio Cromartie, Chad Ochocinco, Steve Smith, Randy Gregory, Cortland Finnegan, Pac Man Jones, Vontaze Burfict, Keyshon Johnson, yep all nothing to do with Tomlin. Oh yeah, Santonio Holmes was a problem for Cowher, but he also never allowed it to be seen by the press corp. Keep driving your narrative off the cliff.
 
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