Le'Veon Bell knew his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers was up when he decided to hold out all of last season over a contract dispute. Bell was unhappy with the money the Steelers were putting on the table and wouldn't give in. It was an admirable position to take as players are trying to take the power back from money-hungry owners who profit off of their players. Last week, Bell signed a 4-year $52.5 million deal with the New York Jets and recently got to talk to Sports Illustrated about the deal.
In the piece which you can read here, Bell had some pretty damning criticisms of his former team.
Per Sports Illustrated:
“Pittsburgh is a great organization. They’ve got a great owner, head coach. They kind of treat you like—they don’t treat you like you’re human. What I mean by that is like, yeah, I’m an NFL athlete, but still I’m a human being. You know what I’m saying? I still play video games, I still make music. They don’t want to allow you to be yourself. They want you to be, if you’re a Steelers, you’re literally playing football 24/7. You’re not supposed to be playing video games and like making music, playing basketball. You’re not supposed to be doing that. You’re supposed to be working out.”
Bell also spoke in-depth about quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as well as his decision to join the Jets.