James Conner has nothing but good words for Le'Veon Bell: 'He's a great person'
Not everyone is mad at Le’Veon Bell and his holdout.
The Pittsburgh Steelers star running back didn’t report for the start of the season and still hasn’t come in to play yet. He was upset that the Steelers gave him another one-year franchise tag instead of the long-term deal he wanted, so he’s saving some wear and tear and holding out until … well, we’re not sure yet.
A lot of people aren’t happy about that, and that surprisingly included some vocal opposition early this season from his Steelers teammates. NFL players usually follow a code: You don’t talk about someone else’s contract business.
One of the soap-opera storylines that has come out of the holdout is how the Steelers will find carries for Bell and his replacement James Conner, who has had some huge games in Bell’s absence. That’s yet to be settled, but Conner has nothing but praise for Bell and how he has encouraged him.
James Conner praises Le’Veon Bell
If you think Bell is jealous of Conner’s success while he’s away, or that the two will have a beef over playing time once Bell reports, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all.
“Anytime I do something good on the field, I always come back to the locker room [to] a text from him saying ‘good game’ or ‘nice move right there,’” Conner said on FS1’s “First Things First,” according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“Me and Le’Veon are super cool. He’s a great person. With him holding out, people are going to call him selfish, but that’s not the case at all. It’s just business, and that’s my guy.”
We could also see Bell being supportive on Twitter last week during the Steelers’ win over the Bengals.
damn james 💪🏾
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) October 14, 2018
That’s not going to help the narrative.
Steelers might have two good running backs soon
The Steelers could end up trading Bell, though that could be tricky. Bell can’t negotiate a long-term deal with his new team; the deadline for that has passed. It’ll be tough to come up with fair compensation for someone who is an All-Pro back but also becomes a free agent after this season.
Then again, having two very good backs is a great problem to have. Some of the Steelers might be upset with Bell, but they probably also realize they’ll be getting a great back with fresh legs once he reports. And Pittsburgh can keep him fresh and Conner from hitting the wall by sharing time between them. It seems like an ideal situation for the stretch run.
At the very least we know this: Conner will welcome his teammate back with open arms.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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