Bowling for Bell - New York Sports Today

Sonja Greenfield, Senior NFL Reporter NFC North, NFC East

By Sonja Greenfield //@Mom23RN

You know how in the winter, or anytime really when that one coworker of yours is sneezing, coughing and blowing their nose constantly. Oh…and they may or may not be using hand sanitizer in between. And you ask them, “uhh…are you OK? Are you coming down with something?” And they instantly say, “I’m fine…I sound worse than how I feel.” You give them the side-eye cause they look like death warmed over, and pray that they don’t give you their crud. But the bottom line is, they just won’t go home??

Well, that’s sort of the opposite happened with Jets running back Le’Veon Bell. He had the flu and was sent home so that he wouldn’t get the rest of his teammates sick. Which is a smart move, because why would you want to get anyone sick? Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I did risk getting people sick in college once. But it was finals week, and I only had strep throat. So, I wore a mask and sat in the back of the class. I passed, no one got sick. Replay first down.

Bell was sent home and was told he wasn’t going to play on Sunday. Completely the team’s decision, and not his. According to him, he wanted to play. So, apparently, since he was feeling better, he decided to go bowling.

Does it “look bad?” I don’t think so. If he was feeling well enough to play, but the team deemed him not ready to play, that’s on the Jets. Essentially, his boss told him to leave work early, so he did. What he does with the rest of his time, is up to Bell. The team should have nothing to do with that part. Would it have been good if he did stay in and, I don’t know, read his playbook or something? And who knows, maybe he did that earlier when he really was still feeling poorly.

Or is this just the beginning to the way out for Bell. He’s not happy, and Gase doesn’t appear to know how to use him.