Just because an ex-player comes back to town doesn’t mean he wants to return to the Steelers

Former Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell was back in town—specifically on the South Side—grabbing some grub at Mike & Tony’s on Friday night.

How do I know this? He posted it on social media, not only looking hungry, but looking happy. Same could be said for the folks at Mike & Tony’s who waited on Bell and his friends.

Naturally, this led to wild speculation, no, not from people like me—a dirty, no-good click-baiting writer—but from people on Twitter. I am paraphrasing, but the reactions ranged from “You had your chance!” to “Someone regrets leaving Pittsburgh.” to “Frick off!” to even “Please come back!”

Why was Bell back in Pittsburgh and at Mike & Tony’s? Oh, I don’t know, why did a couple of my friends come back to town to visit from Austin, Texas, over the weekend? Because they wanted to and they could.

That’s the thing about being a human being first and a football player second. The human being part usually takes precedence over the football player part—especially in March.

This is just an assumption, but, much like my friends who now live in Austin, Bell probably has Pittsburgh pals he still keeps in touch with. He may even have property he still owns in the area. He may have family in the area. Who knows?

I do know Bell has lots of money in the bank and has probably been back to Pittsburgh many times without the public even knowing about it.

I understand the gripe we may have with Bell. After all, he did leave Pittsburgh in the hopes that he would make more money elsewhere, only to get less than what was originally offered by the Steelers. Also, if you’re following Bell, it’s likely because you’re a Steelers fan, and everything he posts has to come back to his time with the team. That obviously explains the Steelers-related comments on just about everything he posts:

”What’s better: pumpkin or sweet potato pie?”

“So glad you’re gone, you greedy and selfish *******!”

As it pertains to the Steelers, they’d likely have an easier time finding parking on East Carson Street on a Saturday night than they would room under the cap to bring Bell back—even at a discount rate.

Yes, the Steelers may have made a phone call to the Jets last season at the trade deadline—oh yeah, he’s still a member of the New York Jets—but I’m betting it was only to see if they could bring him back for the proverbial song.

So, what have we learned here, today? It’s the offseason. Bell is a human being. Bell probably does human being things more than he does football things. Bell has lots of money and can come and go whenever he feels like it. People will turn a “What’s your favorite movie of all time?” question from Bell on Twitter into a mocking fest about how he held out of training camp twice, got caught getting high a few times and made less money with the Jets than he would have made with the Steelers.

Oh yeah, and Mike & Tony’s must be really, really good eatin’.