Mexican Gun Fight will cost Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh’s handling of LeVeon Bell shows true genius of Bill Belichick

In the Wild West the Mexican gunfight was a duel of three participants who would all point guns at each other waiting for the other to pull the trigger. The first person to shoot could be at a disadvantage due to the other two being able to fire at the lone shooter. In the end, all sides were usually maimed or killed and nobody really wins. A few months ago I openly wrote that I was hoping my NY Jet’s could muster a trade for Bell and help their rookie QB with a balanced offense. As events unfolded the last few weeks, it is obvious why the Pats are always at the top and always in the Super Bowl. Both the Steelers and Bell’s agents dug themselves deep into the dirt and refused to budge and the end result is a LOSE/LOSE for both sides and a team that once again that has no Captain of the Steeler ship to overcome the Pats come playoff time. Want to know why the Steelers haven’t been in a Super Bowl in a while despite immense talent? Compare their coach and management with the Pats.

 

The Steelers:   Bell made it clear he wanted a long term guaranteed deal many moons ago but the Steelers decided to drag their feet and play the franchise tag game that basically would require Bell to play this year for a scant 14.5 million dollars. Bell, for his part and as is his right, refused to sign the tender and demanded a single longer-term deal similar to what Rams running back Todd Gurley just signed for. There were so many variables at play here and both sides played their hand like the classic Mexican gun fight in which everybody dies. Instead of just signing Bell to a large deal, they stared down his demands. However since he did not sign the tender, he could not be traded and right now he cannot even play for the Steelers this year. Had they just signed him to a larger deal, there were plenty of teams who would be willing to trade for him. In the end Pitt has nothing for a star RB and now has to decide whether to use the tag on him again next year. He just proved he is not fooling so why not move him like the Pats do with player after player? “Jose” Belichick has proven time and again that he will move off a player early if need be. Year after year there are surprise trades and cuts and we call Senor Juan Pablo Belichick crazy and then 6 months later they beat Pitt in the playoffs.   More importantly, Bell is now untradeable for most teams because unless you back up the brinks he may not show up!

 

LeVeon Bell:   For his part in the Mexican standoff, he gave up $14.5 million this year at the age of 27. Not sure what his agent was thinking, but the NFL stands for Not For Long and if you scan the league, by and large, running backs are done by 30. Go back and look at just 4 years ago and the top rushers in the league were DeMarco Murray, Arien Foster, Matt Forte, Eddie Lacy, Alfred Morris to name a few.   You have about 3 years to cash in on your prime before you are nothing more than a 1 year unguaranteed contract player until you have an unceremonious retirement announcement via twitter. You just cannot give up that much guaranteed cash and this decision will haunt him, particularly if his replacement continues to lead the league in rushing. At some point teams might wonder if it was Bell or the system. Bottom line is he just lost a year of his prime at $14.5 million with no guarantee of recouping it.

 

Head coach Mike Tomlin:     From the very start, Tomlin showed once again that he is a great guy to hang out with in the locker room but not a great person to LEAD the locker room. When Bell didn’t show up, some of his teammates started spouting off about Bell, questioning his heart, motives and more. Right then and there Tomlin should have called a meeting and told the troops into the locker room to shut up and put a gag order on all talk. Instead, there was brooding and bad blood between Bell and his teammates that spilled over to twitter. To make matters worse, yesterday when Bell was officially done for the season, his teammates began raiding his locker, holding up his uniform and making fun of his suit. Shrewd move coach Tomlin. Instead of focusing on a surging team and having equipment managers quietly empty his locker, Tomlin allowed a distracted team to make a classless joke for all to see and post.

 

Meanwhile, back in New England, Belichick is laughing and running towards home field advantage with a bunch of soldiers ready to follow his lead. Amazing how Aaron Hernandez murdered several people but in Pats camp, you never heard a word. But In Steeler camp, a player doesn’t show up over a contract dispute and he is mocked, insulted and a classless dismantling of his locker is performed much to the joy of twitter world.

 

-BSB