Opening his eyes

Proving people wrong was one part of it. Not disappointing his mom was another. The two have always been close, and she’s never cut him a lot of slack.

“He would pout if I asked him to do chores, and I’d say, ‘The sun is still going to come up if you’re pouting,’ ” joked Lisa, who worked two jobs during Le’Veon’s childhood, for Columbus City Schools and part-time as a security guard at a mall.

As Le’Veon’s NFL and Steelers future came into question, it was the voice of his mother that rose above the din.

“Sometimes you get to a point in your life where you feel like you’ve got all the answers,” Le’Veon said. “You may feel like you know what you’re doing. I was at that point the last couple years.

“But when I had my second suspension and was trying to overcome my knee injury, she was somebody I could lean on and give me advice. That’s why I really listened and opened my eyes.

“This is my mother. She’s not going to steer me in the wrong direction. She’s always going to want the right thing for me. That’s why I got in the position that I’m at in the first place, because she always steered me in the right direction.”

Donis Toler Jr. was Bell’s high school principal and one of the earliest influences on him other than Lisa. Bell’s dad was never a part of his life, and Toler was the closest person Bell had to a father figure.

Toler said an important part of Bell’s transformation occurred when he “closed ranks” on his inner-circle earlier this season, fearful of what another problem could mean for his NFL career.

“I think he’s realized he can’t afford to make any more mistakes, that he’s jeopardizing what he loves the most,” Toler said. “I would be shocked if he had any more mishaps.”

Taking the game more seriously also has been a big thing, Toler said.

When Bell gets home from a game these days, he often flips on the TV, having DVR’d the network broadcast, and watches it again.

“I’m not talking about the film room,” Toler said. “I’m talking about when you get back home and watching the replay to see what you can do better.”

Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward has noticed a huge change in Bell, both in how he conducts himself off the field and how he practices on it.

“I just think there’s a patience in the way his life is right now,” Heyward said. “Everything has slowed down. And I think he had to with everything that was going on.”

In a way, it’s almost ironic that with Bell’s star shining brighter than ever, one of the running backs on the opposite side will be LeGarrette Blount.

Bell and Blount were together in August 2014 when they were pulled over on McKnight Road, the smell of marijuana emanating from their car.

Bell was charged with a DUI, though it was later reduced after he agreed to enter a program for first-time offenders.

The two remain close, but Bell has finally put that incident behind him.

“He knew he had to mature,” Lisa Bell said. “I had a talk with him and said, ‘I know I look at you as a kid, but you’re in a big man’s world. You’re on a larger scale than the average 24year-old. You have dreams of going to Canton and being in the Hall of Fame. You’re about to give it up because you don’t want to grow up.’ “

Outside interests

Football has become more important than ever for Bell, but it’s not the only thing that interests him.

While Bell was suspended, he spent much of his time rapping, his favorite hobby, using words to express his frustration and talk about his growth.

He’s also big into chess, an appropriate hobby given his patient running style.

The time away from football allowed Bell to delve into yet another interest: his love for animals. Lisa Bell said she’s been a member of the Columbus Zoo for 23 years. She and Le’Veon would catch fireflies in their yard and spend time at the local library researching animals together.

That affinity has led Bell to occasionally dabble in vegetarianism — he tried it for 38 days this past offseason — and also to house four dogs: a Boxer and three Rottweilers.

“I definitely love animals, especially dogs,” Bell said. “Those are my babies.”

Bell also has started to work toward finishing his college degree; he’s now a half-semester away. Lisa never graduated college; she became pregnant with Le’Veon with one semester to go. Le’Veon will be the first of her seven kids — three biological sons, two step-sons and two adopted daughters — to do it, a serious point of pride in the family.

“He’s going to do it,” Toler said. “And I’m going to be proud when he does.”

Catching Zee

Clarence Bell Jr., Le’Veon’s uncle, doesn’t want to take credit for his running style, but he might as well with the way he describes running plays when he was Le’Veon’s first youth coach.

“You might call a play to a certain hole, but it’s not necessarily open,” Clarence said. “I’d always tell him, ‘Don’t just run up there and kick somebody in the back. Hesitate. Another hole might open. You might see something else.’ “

It might also be Bell’s love for animals that explains his elusiveness. When Le’Veon was in middle school, the family had an 18-month-old German Shepherd mix named Zee. Le’Veon and his brothers would dart around the family’s tiny yard, trying to catch him.

“Nobody could catch him,” Le’Veon said Friday, shaking his head. “My mom would tell you to this day, she felt like he helped me with changing directions — trying to catch a dog who’s super athletic.”

Even then, Bell was super competitive. Lisa remembered an eighth-grade tennis match where Le’Veon lost because his opponent had a topspin-heavy serve that resulted in a lot of aces.

“He insisted that he go over there and speak to the boy, to ask him how he did that,” Lisa said. “The little boy showed him how to do it. The next match, his serve had that same top spin. He said, ‘He’s not going to get me on that again.’ “

Bell doesn’t want to lose and has willingly shouldered more and more responsibility to ensure that hasn’t happened. That continues today.

Ben Roethlisberger challenged Bell at the outset of the postseason to become Terrell Davis and carry the Steelers like Davis did the Broncos of the late 1990s.

“He’s rising up to the challenge that I presented to him, that we presented to him as an offense,” Roethlisberger said. “It’s great to see.”

Bell has done a lot more than answer his quarterback’s challenge.

Getting his act together and growing up quickly was to honor his mom’s wishes as much as anything else.

“‘You have to learn from it,’ ” Lisa said she told Le’Veon. “‘You can’t allow that to distract you. Do whatever you have to do. … You want to make it to the mountain, right Moses?’ ”