It seems even the money can’t break two players’ old habits.
As reported by NBC Sports, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ top two running backs, Le’Veon Bell, 22, and LeGarratte Blount, 27, were arrested by Ross Township Police on the charges that they were in possession of marijuana. There was also an unidentified woman in the car arrested on the same charges. Bell is also expected to be charged with driving under the influence. They are not expected to be suspended by the Steelers.
These kinds of arrests seem to be happening throughout the league — athletes who can’t stop their old ways of life even though they’ve entered into a professional career. Look at Josh Gordon, for the Cleveland Browns, the guy can’t seem to stay out of trouble and he’s now looking at an entire year’s suspension.
All these players have the best talent in the world — you need to if you want to make it in the National Football League —however, Bell and Blount don’t seem to understand how lucky they are. These are two young guys, both getting paid a substantial amount of money to play a game, a dangerous game, but still a game nonetheless.
As reported by Spotrac, Blount is signed to a 2-year, $3.8 million deal with $950,000 guaranteed. While Bell is signed to a 4-year, $4.1 million deal with $2.2 million guaranteed. I don’t know about everyone else in the world, but if a company was offering me that kind of money, and laid out a set of rules for me to follow, rules that are set for every American, seeing as marijuana is illegal in the majority of the country, I’d probably go ahead and follow the rules. Here are two guys with the world at their fingertips, playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, a great organization known for their brutal running game (Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, anyone?) and instead of appreciating the opportunity, they’re driving around with drugs in the car, pretending they aren’t the face of the Steelers’ run game.
I don’t want to play judge here, and I know it’s not like the guys were driving around drunk, with guns and causing trouble around the town, but rules are rules and laws are laws. It’s difficult as someone who is working his way through college to see two guys’ childhood dreams come true, and they are acting like it’s no big deal. There are plenty of guys out there, and if given the chance to trade spots with these two gentlemen, they would take it in a heartbeat and I bet they would follow the rules.
I'm not saying that these two guys are horrible people, but it would be nice to know that these men who are getting paid millions of dollars to play a game they love aren’t taking it for granted, as we, the viewers, are paying to watch them.
