Over the weekend, former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell announced that he intends to start training for an NFL return. But Bell hinted that he only wanted to return to play for the Steelers, where he had the most prolific stretch of his NFL career.
“I won’t start training until like March,” Bell said. “And I’m gonna be honest with myself, I got to go out there and be like, I’m going to put my foot in the ground. Do I feel it? Am I hurting? Can I go out there and really play again? And bro, I’m telling you all right now when I go out there and train in March and if I hit April and I make this decision to come back to play in the NFL again, mark my words down — I will be better than I ever was. And I will only come back for that one team. You all know who iti is. I don’t have to say no team. You all know who it is.”
Bell, who spent five seasons with the Steelers after being drafted in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft, has not played in the league since 2021, but he hasn’t officially retired. If he can make one last trip into a locker room and go after it, it seems he will be open to that notion. Bell played for multiple teams trying to find a foothold in 2021, and now could look again.
And former teammate Cam Heyward is open to welcoming Bell back onto the team.
“If he comes back, we would love to have him. He looked like he was in great shape last time we saw him,” Heyward said on his Not Just Football Podcast. “I know we got some great running backs, but he could provide some knowledge for the group, and we’ll take him from there.”
Last summer, during an interview with the Steel Here Podcast, talked about the potential of coming back to the Steelers for one last opportunity to run through a hole.
“I never officially retired,” Bell said. “The day when I retire, it will be with Pittsburgh. … Before I do that, I may be like, hey, let me get a couple of carries in the preseason so I can show y’all something.”
Bell visited the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for the first time since 2017 in December for the team’s walkthrough. During the 2018 season, the Steelers franchise tagged Bell for a second time, and the star running back held out for the entire season. In the offseason, he left to sign with the Jets, but Bell is out of football just five years later.
