Bell WTF?

He's definitely screwed himself on this one. ONE MORE infraction and it's almost certain they'll drop the hammer on him. Same with Bryant. A simple drug is destroying the "dream scenario" potential energy of this team

 

I buy those Chinese jerseys. $25 a pop. Can't go wrong.

 

True in most ways. 30 Years in the Marines when my guys got in trouble it was my butt that got reamed. Having said that, folks got to know
A TURD IS A TURD, AND NO MATTER WHAT THEY TELL YOU IN DC. IT IS ENTIRELY IMPOSSIBLE TO PICK ONE UP BY THE CLEAN END!

 

Chuck Noll was the Steelers coach when Tim Worley and the late Terry Long were suspended for substance abuse. Bill Cowher was the coach when Eric Green, Joel Steed and Paul Wiggins were suspended. Why is Tomlin held to a different standard?

 

Noll had Ernie Holmes. Heroine, shooting at police helicopters,..

 

True, but now these are 2 of the best players. It's like Franco Harris and Lynn Swan getting suspended .

 

Well you all remember Santonio Holmes, great talent couldn't stay off the dope.
He was gone as soon as the Steelers could get a taker. Same will be true for these two also.
Won't bother me one bit. These guys are losers, we can't have anybody bringing down the team.
Bye Bye. What a slap in the face to your teammates, coaches, Rooney's. And we saw the downward spiral
of Santonio, cause he couldn't get off the dope.Now where is he?

 

Sure, it's the millennials that are killing sports for you.

Just to be clear, the NFL is in the pain business. Perhaps it's difficult to deal with the pain without turning to addictive opioids. I know I would hate to be in a position where I felt compelled to jeopardize my career in order to deal with it or face a spiraling addiction.

 

I don't understand why none of you seem to feel any sort of compassion.

Suppose your employer named coffee a banned substance. "Get rid of the coffee habit! Follow the rules!" you say.

How much pain do you think you'd have to be in in order to reach the point where you're sneaking a cup in before work? And I guarantee you have less money on the line than these guys.

These aren't DUI's or domestic abuse violations.

I don't understand why the vitriol is directed at the players as opposed to the league. Wouldn't we all prefer they do away with the rule?

 

I think the difference is the rule was in place when they signed their contract. They not only broke a contract they freely agreed to but they broke their word. The NFL didn't change the rules. They are the ones sticking to their word and the agreement.

If players don't like the contract then negotiate changes when your contract expires.

 

I've always been worried about ordering from those websites. Which one have you had the best experience with?

 

Pittsburghers and Steeler fans have been what they've always been. Blue collar, working class people, who make their own.

I've learned that going down that particular rabbit hole that you're taking the conversation down now, while completely valid, doesn't go far. Some don't understand how drug use comes about. Some do, but hold on to the spoken code that the Steelers are supposed to be enforcing that.., their are no "me's" (no matter how dire your situation is), only the team.

Then their are those of us who are pro-marijuana (since that is most undoubtly the substance Bell was trying to hide) and we're that way because we understand that it is nothing but good. So we have some compassion. In some ways its the opposite of your coffee scenario. The players only options to deal with pain are opiates. As if the company in question said "work 18 hours a day, no coffee, just Monster Energy." Lol.

Now... With Bell.

Bell isn't one of those sad cases. Honestly. I've seen him play. I've heard his rap songs. He simply loves being a playmaker, he loves getting laid from his fame, and whilst its not in his lyrics, he loves smoking weed.

What's not to love if you know what its truly about and the culture behind it? Well that doesn't matter. Simply enjoying is not enough of a reason for ANY fan, conservative or liberal on the issue, to forgive bell. He just wants to live the lifestyle his money can afford whilst he's still young and making the money (again, not necessarily bad, but it isn't a case for pity)

I stopped smoking it when I got into where I'm working now. Money is wholly more important to establish my well being and that of a future family (I'm a younger mid-20's fan). Theres no reason for me to break that, its a wonderful herb, but I dont NEED it. Neither does Bell from my perception of him. He's just stupid at this point.

Now..., Bryant. I've known it since I first saw him. With interviews, and I think I saw him on some show where he was playing Madden with Darren McFadden on tv. He has social anxieties, and a lack of self confidence, amongst possibly other anxietal/depressive issues. I simply see it because I was at that point once. And it's hard to look at grown men who play a grown man's sport ( and make me look like a child in terms of athletic ability) as EARLY 20 YEAR OLD KIDS. Bryant I do have sympathy for, because I believe he smoked for an entirely different reason. The rules are still the rules, he broke them, and he deserves his punishment. But I hope he gets help and makes a turnaround, because he's a special talent.

Bell is too, but he doesn't need help. He just needs to stop. And it ain't that hard.

 

Was it back to back seasons they whe suspended for the same problem

 

It's not like they just made weed illegal. It's been that way since before he was born. Try again.

 

You forgot about Bam Morris busted with marijuana with intent to sell, when Cowher was the coach.

 

I'm not in the get rid of him camp just yet. He did have a DUI last time. I just have no sympathy for him at all.
If he was just a dude smoking some weed that would be one thing, but he has teamates who's success depend on him. He also has fans who spend a considerable amount of time and money on him. I hope he gets his problems figured out and moves on with his life, but at this point he's earned the criticism.
As far as all the details, there's no way it is something as simple as he had a problem and couldn't make it to the test. I'm sure these issues come up and the tests have to be rescheduled at times. He had to really mess up to get it to this point.

 

I heard a former NFL player on the radio he said for the drug test the guy from the league stands there and watches the players pee in the cup.

 

See this is where I'm going to need more details before I start foaming at the mouth because the most I have seen makes me believe that he missed just one test and rescheduled it multiple times. I'm also leaning more towards he hasn't actually been smoking up but rather feels he is being persecuted by the league and he is trying to push back. That is the impression I get from his tweets around 4/20. He thinks they are out to get him and catch him at something even though he is clean and not doing anything wrong. Of course that is just my impression.

 

How many times does he need to reschedule? If he's trying to prove some kind of point it backfired.
I get that all the details aren't out yet, but I just think of a logical excuse why he would have missed the test.
When this story was first reported I decided to wait till it was confirmed before making any stupid remarks. Now that it's confirmed I'm going to make some stupid remarks. Lol!

 

That's the world we live in nowadays. These guys are trying to use synthetic piss to pass tests now.
This stuff is all so stupid anyway. Whether you think weed should be legal or not is irrelevant in this case. If you play in the NFL you can't do it.

 

If you're right, how does this make Bell more sympathetic? To me it makes him a bigger idiot than if he smoked and failed.

He knows that missing a test is the same as failing. If he kept rescheduling he should know that has limits. If he was pushing back because he felt he was persecuted, congratulations you died for your righteous cause.

If he was clean and didn't take the test, they should suspend him for a yr for shear stupidity.

Believe the tweets of dumbass young athletes at your peril.


If he doesn't like the testing protocol, Bell should become active as a NFLPA team rep, get on the negotiating team and change it. But until the testing rules are changed, he can either abide by the rules negotiated by his union or he can get punished if he violates them. very simple.

My guess Lev Bell and many of his brethren pay nearly no attention to the labor rules they've agreed to, until those rules bite them.

 

Also Blast, I think I read you have to miss a few before they drop the hammer on you. Don't know if that is true or not.

 

Well that would make more sense. I still think that if they hit him with a random test and he was out of the country, that they would either reschedule or send someone to him. Seems a little fishy. If the NFL didn't want to work with him on it then they do need to piss off. And he should hire Brady's lawyer.