Le’Veon Bell knows exactly how this movie ends because he starred in it.
The former Pittsburgh Steelers running back weighed in on the contract standoff between the team and cornerback Joey Porter Jr. with a short post on X: “man I hope the steelers just pay JPJ .. at some point things gotta change ..”
The Situation Is a Holdout With a Doctor’s Note
Porter has missed the first two games of the season with a back injury. He and the Steelers are locked in a contract dispute, and plenty of people around the league believe the injury is a convenient way to sit out without the label.
Whether that read is correct barely matters. The result is identical either way. A starting cornerback is not on the field, the team and the player are not aligned, and every week that passes makes the relationship worse.
Bell Has Standing Here That Nobody Else Does
Bell sat out an entire season over a contract with this exact franchise. He eventually left for the New York Jets, and he was never the same player again.
He has since admitted he should have taken the offer Pittsburgh had on the table. That is the part that makes his post interesting. Bell is not telling Porter to hold firm. He is telling the Steelers to pay, which is a different message from a man who knows what holding out cost him personally.
Read it as a veteran trying to spare a younger player the same outcome, while also pointing at an organizational pattern he thinks is real.
Is Porter Worth It
This is where the Steelers have a defensible position. Porter has three NFL seasons behind him, with 165 career tackles and three interceptions. Three interceptions in three years for a corner asking to be paid like a cornerstone is a thin resume.
He has the physical profile and the bloodline and he has held up in coverage against real receivers. He has not produced the kind of ball production that makes a front office open the vault without argument.
So both sides have a case, which is exactly why this has dragged on.
The Steelers Should End It Anyway
Here is the practical argument. Pittsburgh is not a team with cornerback depth to spare, and a corner who is not on the field is worth zero regardless of who is right about his market value.
Franchises that build a reputation for these fights pay for it in free agency and in the next negotiation with the next young player. Bell’s point about things needing to change is about culture, not about one cap number.
Get it done, put him on the field, and stop losing games to an argument.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.