Jets’ Bell expects ride from boo-birds
Steelers fans with long memories
WASHINGTON • With the 5- 9 Jets limping to the close of another disappointing season, there should be plenty of tickets available for Sunday’s game against the visiting Steelers. As such, Le’veon Bell could see lots of Pittsburgh fans in the stands at Metlife Stadium — and he expects to hear some boos from them, as well.
In fact, the former Steelers running back, who signed with the Jets in the offseason, said Thursday that he expects his new team’s home to be “packed with Steeler fans.” Given that he went to three Pro Bowls in five seasons with Pittsburgh before sitting out the 2018 season in a contract dispute with the team, Bell is anticipating a mixed reaction Sunday.
“I think it’ll probably be 50-50,” he told reporters (via The Associated Press). “It’ll be half that are happy to see me and still love me, and half that hate me, despise me. It is what it is.
“I’m going to show love, regardless, to everybody wearing my jersey on both sides, so that’ll be fun.”
While Bell has had a disappointing debut in New York, averaging just 3.3 yards per carry and 31.1 receiving yards per game, with four total touchdowns, Pittsburgh has managed to overcome his loss and that of former star wide receiver Antonio Brown to cobble together an 8- 6 record, even with injuries to remaining offensive stars such as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, wide receiver Juju Smith-schuster and running back James Conner.
That has the Steelers in position to make the playoffs if they win their final two games, giving their fans all the more incentive to trek to the Meadowlands and offer a major show of support. As Bell noted from experience ( via ESPN), “Steeler fans travel well.”
More recently, Bell and other members of the Jets couldn’t help but notice that a large number of Raiders fans were in attendance at Metlife for a Week 12 game against visiting Oakland, especially when those fans booed the home team as it took the field at the start of the contest. “We felt disrespected,” Jets safety Jamal Adams said at the time.
“I think it’ll be the same as that,” Bell, 27, predicted Thursday, “if not more.”
In this case, though, much of that animosity might be specifically directed at one particular Jets player. Even some of Bell’s Steelers teammates at the time expressed frustration with him when his holdout from Pittsburgh’s 2018 training camp extended into the regular season.
However, Pittsburgh defensive tackle Cam Heyward claimed Thursday that he had “love” for Bell.
“Even though he’s on a different team, we play football and we’re trying to get after him, in the right mind, we appreciate what he’s done here,” Heyward said, adding, “We have to make sure we bring our hard hat because he’s going to be trying to get some payback.”
“At the end of the day, the outside world can think whatever they want, but everyone in this locker-room loves and respects him,” Steelers centre Maurkice Pouncey said of Bell on Wednesday. “At the end of the day, hell, if he was still here, we’ll be riding with him.”
Pittsburgh might actually have come close to reacquiring Bell at the midseason trade deadline, to judge from his claims at the time. Reports from the New York media suggest that the Jets may put him back on the trade block, but Bell insisted Thursday, “I don’t regret anything that happened. I’m happy where I am today.”
“The way things are going, obviously it’s not ideal with the way our record is,” he said.
“But like I said in Week 2, Week 3, this is kind of like rebuilding. I want to be a part of it and see it grow.”
WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE WE BRING OUR HARD HAT.