Remember all of Mike Tomlin's righteous indignation regarding Le'Veon Bell?
How he refused to take any questions about how Bell's summer-long absence from the Steelers' fold might impact his performance?
“You can sing that Le’Veon Bell camp song all you want,” Tomlin snapped at a reporter 17 days ago. “He is here, and he’s working. I am done with it.”
Well, guess who isn't done with it?
I offer up Todd Haley, in this series of responses Thursday in his weekly media session at the Rooney Sports Complex:
• Asked at the outset why Bell just can't really get going: "I think that he missed a lot of time."
• Asked later by me why Martavis Bryant can't seem to create separation in his routes: "This is a guy who didn’t play football for a year. So we understand with both he and Le’Veon, there was going to be a period of knocking rust off, whatever you want to say. I’m not saying anybody is anything, but that’s a lot of time missed for both guys."
• Asked if the issue was more about rust or Bell's core muscle surgery in March: "I can’t answer that. I mean, he’s moving around well. It’s a culmination of things."
Haley probably meant combination, but it might as well be a culmination. Because the outcome of all of the above, whatever the primary cause, is that the Steelers are almost a month into their season, staring hard at John Harbaugh's standard Bell-proof nine-man box Sunday in Baltimore, and we're all still awaiting on the legitimately elite version of Le'Veon: Through three weeks, he's got 180 yards, an average of 60 per game and 3.5 per carry, with a long run of 15 yards and a solitary touchdown. A year after averaging an outrageous 157 yards per game from scrimmage, he's now at 78.6.
Which is probably why Bell, like Haley, finally blurted out what Tomlin wouldn't.
“It could be the surgery. It could be rust from not being in camp," Bell acknowledged for the first time I'd heard. "It could be a combination of a lot of things. I haven't been that special player yet. I've been kind of just playing football. I have to go out there and be the special player I can be.”
That's indisputably correct. And yet, upon closer inspection, as much as the Chicago debacle still reeks, Bell carried 15 times for 61 yards, an average of 4.1, with a quality touchdown run and this magnificent leap in the fourth quarter:
After that formal session was done, Haley went out of his way to underscore that 4.1 yards-per-carry average, and it's a fair point because that makes the key figure those 15 carries. He didn't cite this additionally, but I will: Marcus Gilbert and Ramon Foster were out, and their replacements weren't exactly meeting the Standard.
That tells me they're getting there.
And so did some uncharacteristically humble candor Thursday from Bell.
“I'm leaving plays out on the field," he said. "I think I'm just as explosive as I've always been. It's just so far I haven't really broke one. I've been close to breaking a couple runs, a couple catches, but it just hasn't happened yet. I've looked at those on film, and I kick myself. I'm sick about it."
It won't get easier Sunday.
"The Ravens aren't going to let me out of the box. I know that. I've got to fight for it."
Acknowledging the problem -- and its cause -- is a sizable step in the right direction.
• A one-and-done for any debate about what went wrong for the Steelers in Chicago:
• Thursday night in Green Bay, the Bears' Danny Trevathan did this to the Packers' Davante Adams ...
Trevathan went head hunting on Davante Adams. Ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/SByiyzTDqk
— Jason Fielder (@JasonFielderTV) September 29, 2017
... and he wasn't ejected. I swear. I saw it on my TV, leaned forward on the couch in anticipation of the ref's announcement and couldn't believe it.
Trevathan will get fined, probably suspended for this sickening act that only Vontaze Burfict could admire. I hope it's for the whole season, and I'm offering that without any intended hyperbole. But any league that employs officials witnessing this and not immediately throwing the offender off the field needs to take one heck of a hard look at itself.
• Mike Sullivan's patient approach to choosing a second-line left winger might -- that's might -- be done with Scott Wilson. Sullivan's a bona fide believer in Wilson, specifically as it relates to his ability to compensate for the lack of dirty work Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel will offer, but also for Wilson's better-than-most-think hands.
I know better than to debate a Sullivan stance. Besides, I like Wilson.
That said, I'm trying hard to conceive of a good reason not to go with Bryan Rust there. And his being a natural right winger isn't enough.
Anyone?
• Hand and wrist injuries linger more than most in professional sports, and that's understandable given their relevance in the human anatomy. So here's hoping Patric Hornqvist's return is based on 100 percent health rather than any rush. He's infinitely more valuable at season's end than season's start.
• All that's needed to know about how badly the Pirates' front office bungled the 2017 season is that, somehow, some way, Daniel Hudson's two-year, $11 million contract out of free agency has avoided any semblance of public criticism, it seems.
Well, I'm always happy to oblige: Among all 75 relievers in Major League Baseball with 60-plus innings, Hudson ranks, uh, 75th with a 1.45 WHIP, or walks and hits per inning pitched. Which basically makes him one of the worst relievers anywhere.
The positive: The Pirates are on the hook for the same guaranteed $5.5 million again next summer and, from what I'm told, they very much plan to give him another go.
Sorry, we were complaining about payroll?
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