Walt Bell Says UMass Cancelling It's Football Season Was A Tougher Day Than When Both Of His Parents Died

Earlier this week, the current strength coach at Troy University tweeted out this:

I thought it was going to be the take of the week from the college football coaching world, but boy was I wrong. Walt Bell came in with a DOOZY of a quote that I thought was from The Onion originally.

To give Bell a fair shake, here is some more context of that quote:

“I’ll tell you guys the same way I told my players. You know, my dad passed away in 2008, my biological mom OD’d in 2012. And to be honest with you, this is probably a tougher day than both of those days.”

He continued: “You know, it’s one thing when it’s in your own family and you’ve got a job to do and be the caretaker for the other people, but when you’ve got to go look, 100, some odd, or 109 18-to-21-year-old kids in the face and tell them that their dreams aren’t gonna come true, that’s a devastating deal.”

It should also be mentioned his relationship with his mother:

It’s true that Bell has been candid about his family. Amin Touri, editor in chief of the UMass Daily Collegian and a 2020 UMass graduate, wrote a lengthy feature on Bell last October in which he discussed, among other things, his biological mother’s decision to leave the family when he was a youngster. They didn’t see each other for years. She was living in Memphis when she died of a drug overdose. His father, Dr. Walter A. (Butch) Bell III, died in 2008.

Some things are bigger than sports…except for UMass football, I guess.