Here’s hoping Bell returns despite major downside

One way or the other, our long civic nightmare will end by 4 p.m. Tuesday. Le’Veon Bell will report to the Steelers and play out the rest of the season or he won’t report and sit out the remaining games.

National media reports late last week said Bell likely won’t come in to avoid risking injury and to put himself in the best position to get a huge contract as a free agent next season. A day earlier, Art Rooney II told Sirius XM radio he expected Bell to report.

That’s the strange, wild, surreal ride we’ve been on with Bell since the start of the season.

I’m still hoping Bell reports.

I know the downside. Team chemistry appears to be better than ever.

The offense is flying without Bell.

His replacement, James Conner, is in the conversation for NFL MVP. Ben Roethlisberger is inching toward that status.

Teammates love Conner. Roethlisberger has called him “humble” and “selfless.”

Roethlisberger and the other players have refused to answer questions about Bell the past few weeks, saying plenty about the situation without saying anything at all.

It would take Bell at least a few weeks to get in football shape. He hasn’t put on the uniform since the playoff loss to Jacksonville in January, more than 300 days ago.

But I also know the benefits of getting Bell back.

A team never can have enough great players.

There are ways to get Conner and Bell touches. Conner has talked about the duo being “unstoppable.” Bell also would provide tremendous depth behind Conner, who has been far better than anyone — including the Steelers — could have imagined.

If the team had known Conner would be so productive, they never would have tagged Bell for a guaranteed $14,544,000. They would have used that money to strengthen other positions.

But what happens if Conner gets hurt? He left the win against Carolina Thursday night and entered concussion protocol.

He looked fine Saturday when he walked to midfield as Pitt’s honorary captain for the game against Virginia Tech, but what if he’s not? Or he gets more seriously injured? Are you comfortable with Steven Ridley or Jaylen Samuels as your starting running back?

I stopped trying to figure out what Bell will do a long time ago. He seems to change his mind the way other men change their socks. You know, on a daily basis.

I never imagined Bell wouldn’t show up on Labor Day — the Monday before the opening game in Cleveland — and start losing game checks worth $855,000 each. I don’t think he imagined it, either, but maybe changed his mind after Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley signed for $45 million in guaranteed money. That’s much more guaranteed cash than the Steelers were offering Bell.

I thought Bell would report during the Steelers’ off week in late October. That would have given him two weeks to get ready for the final 10 games. He chose to stay away.

I thought for sure Bell would come in this week so he could finish the season. It appeared he thought the same thing because he said “Fairwell” to Miami on Twitter last week and came to Pittsburgh.

Did something change his mind again?

Maybe it was the national report that he and his agent finally read the fine print of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and realized the Steelers won’t tag him again after the season unless they are willing to pay him quarterback money, roughly $25 million for the 2019 season. They won’t do that. He will become a free agent after the Super Bowl.

The argument I’ve heard for Bell not reporting goes something like this:

Why would he give up $8.55 million to this point and then risk injury the rest of the season for a mere (I can’t believe I wrote that word in this context) $6 million?

Dez Bryant signed with New Orleans last week and tore an Achilles tendon in one of his first practices.

I guess that makes sense, at least as much as anything Bell has done makes sense.

I’m holding out hope that when the final decision must be made by 4 p.m., Bell shows up to play. I don’t think he would hurt the team or its chemistry one bit.

I think he might just push the Steelers over the top as a Super Bowl contender.