Steelers: If Le’Veon Bell’s agent wants to talk workload, he has our number

Getty Images Le’Veon Bell‘s agent Adisa Bakari made an appearance on Sirius XM NFL Radio Wednesday and suggested that Bell’s ongoing absence was linked to the heavy workload he figures to see in what’s shaping up to be his final season with the Steelers.
“If you’re Kevin Colbert and you’re Mike Tomlin, and you have a once-in-a-generation type of player for one more season, what would your plan be?
… You can read in between those lines,” Bakari said.
Bakari also made an appearance on ESPN and said the back is “going to do the things necessary to protect his value long-term.” Steelers director of communications Burt Lauten said in a statement later in the day that Bakari and Bell were free to reach out to the team if they wanted to discuss their plans for how Bell will be used.
“We are not going to discuss any conversations through the media,” Lauten said.
“If Adisa would like to talk further, he has the phone number to our offices.” Bell’s teammate Maurkice Pouncey weighed in with his own thoughts about Bell’s workload concerns.
“That’s just stupid.
You can’t play football like that,” Pouncey said, via Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL Media.
For now, Bell isn’t playing football and, as Pouncey and guard Ramon Foster‘s comments attest, the response to that decision got more heated in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.