Columbus native and former NFL All-Pro Le'Veon Bell says he's ready for boxing career

Columbus native and NFL running back Le'Veon Bell says he's ready for a new career.

Bell, a free agent, won't play NFL football this upcoming season in order to focus on his new boxing career.

“Boxing is something that, you know, they always say it’s something you can’t play boxing. Last year, I almost sat out the whole year to try to focus on boxing because I kind of knew that was what I wanted to transition to,” Bell said while promoting a July 30 fight in Los Angeles with former NFL MVP running back, Adrian Peterson. “This year, I know I’m not going to be playing this year because I want to focus on boxing.”

NFL: Le'Veon Bell considered NFL retirement in 2021 to pursue boxing before signing with Buccaneers

And Bell, a Groveport Madison graduate, has big goals for his new career and his home city, posting on Twitter Friday that he dreams about selling out an unnamed arena in Columbus.

Bell's NFL career started in Pittsburgh in 2013, and he was All-Pro in 2017 for the Steelers before sitting out the 2018 season and continuing his career with the New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In an Instagram post last week, Bell said he regrets how things played out in 2018.

“The NFL has done great things for me, [and] I truly appreciated every single year of my NFL journey,” he wrote. “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 . . . all I can do, all WE can do is keep moving forward with life.”

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Le'Veon Bell retires from NFL, ready to start boxing career