The Pittsburgh Steelers once had one of the best running backs in football in Le’Veon Bell. According to one prediction, that won’t be enough to land him in Canton.
CBS Sports’ Bryan DeArdo grouped Bell among the long shots in his ranking of potential Pro Football Hall of Fame candidates for the 2027 class, a list of accomplished players facing an uphill climb to induction.
For Bell, the climb comes down to one decision that reshaped his entire career.
CBS Sports Predicts Le’Veon Bell Won’t Make the Hall of Fame
DeArdo placed Bell alongside Joe Haden, Ryan Kerrigan, Malcolm Jenkins, Brandon Brooks and Dont’a Hightower, a group with 15 combined Pro Bowls but a shared obstacle when it comes to Canton.
Bell’s case is its own kind of what-if. DeArdo wrote that the running back was “on his way to a potential Hall of Fame career” during his time in Pittsburgh, earning three Pro Bowls and two All-Pro nods across his first five seasons while running behind quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and alongside receiver Antonio Brown in the “Killer B’s” era.
Then came the turn.
“A season-long holdout, however, negatively changed the course of Bell’s career and all but ended his Hall of Fame chances,” DeArdo wrote.
Le’Veon Bell’s Steelers Career and the Holdout That Changed Everything
At his peak, Bell was as complete a back as the league had.
He broke out in 2014 with more than 2,200 yards from scrimmage, then led the NFL with 321 carries for 1,291 yards in 2017 while doubling as one of the best receiving backs in the game. He left Pittsburgh fourth on the franchise’s all-time rushing list with 5,336 yards, all in just five seasons, powering a Steelers offense that won two AFC North titles and reached the playoffs three times during his run.
The end came over money. In 2018, rather than sign a second straight franchise tag worth roughly $14.5 million, Bell sat out the entire season in one of the highest-profile holdouts in NFL history. He never played another down for Pittsburgh.
Bell landed a four-year, $52.5 million deal with the New York Jets the following spring, but he was never the same player. He bounced from the Jets to the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before taking his final NFL snap in 2021.
He later admitted the gamble backfired.
“I should never have left,” Bell told Steelers fans in a social media statement, per Yahoo Sports.
The struggles have continued off the field. Bell was arrested in Canton, Ohio, on July 19 on a Michigan warrant for unpaid child support, taken into custody during an autograph signing at Belden Village Mall, according to WKYC’s Anna Meyer. Bell reportedly owes more than $50,000, and his attorney, Thomas Shaffer, told TMZ Sports that the payments remain a problem.
“Le’Veon is struggling to make support payments, which are based on a healthy NFL salary — a salary he’s not earned in years,” Shaffer said.
There’s a grim symmetry to it. A career that turned on a fight over money ended years ago, and the money fights haven’t stopped, this time playing out in the same town that houses the Hall of Fame he’s now unlikely to enter.
That’s the case DeArdo laid out. Bell had the talent to end up in Canton, and for five years in Pittsburgh he looked the part. The holdout that was supposed to secure his future is the reason his Hall of Fame odds now sit as long as anyone’s.
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