Le'Veon Bell Goes Scorched Earth on Adam Gase, Claiming He Caught Him Snorting Blow in His Office Before Practice
Scott Taetsch. Getty Images.Looking back at Le'Veon Bell's career that ended in 2021, a few things become clear as crystal. One is that he was one of the NFL's true workhorse running backs (in 2017 he led the league with 321 carries and 406 touches). Two is that he never truly recovered from sitting out the 2018 season in a contract dispute. And three, that his time with the Jets was far too short.
Sincerely, America deserved better to see Bell play just 17 games for Gang Green over less than a season and a half. More specifically, we should've had more time to see him and Adam Gase coexist. They really were one of the great comedy duos of the 21st century. Up there with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, Martha Stewart and Snoop. We just didn't realize it until the act broke up:
And by then it was too late.
The good news is, even five years after they went their separate ways, Bell still has stories he hasn't told. And this latest one is a doo-oo-oozy.
Giphy Images.
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In the tragic event you don't have the five minutes to invest in listening to this conversation, I'll transcribe the highlights for you. Out of the goodness of my kind heart and as a public service:
“I really hated that dude. Adam Gase, bro. He might have been the dumbest coach ever. I promise you, if it’s second and nine and Adam Gase is the coach, he’s calling a halfback dive. Every time. There’s not one time I was in the huddle on second and nine or second and ten, and he didn’t call a dive.
"Anytime I looked at the yard marker on the sideline and saw the play coming in, I didn’t even need to listen. I’d just line up. I already knew the play. He’s about to give me a dive. Worst play in football. Worst coach in the NFL. …
“One time, we’re about to play the Bengals. We have a normal Wednesday practice. Thursday comes, we’re doing a wet ball drill because it’s supposed to rain on Sunday. That’s normal.
“He calls me over like he’s about to tell me a secret. I go over there. He says, ‘You know it’s supposed to rain a lot Sunday.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know. Big game.’ He says, ‘I’m looking to throw the ball about 40-plus times.’
“I looked at him and said, ‘What? You’re going to throw the ball 40-plus times? It’s raining. The ball is going to be wet.’ He said, ‘No, think about it. The receivers know where they’re going, but the defenders don’t. They might slip and we can get a big play.’
“He looked me right in my eyes and said that. This was 2019, and I wasn’t trying to cause any issues in the media, so I just held it in. But that’s what caused the stress.
"He straight-up told me we were about to throw the ball 40-plus times because it was going to rain all game. How much sense does that make? That’s backwards. We’re supposed to be running the ball. That’s how you get yards in those conditions.
"Go look at the stats. We threw the ball 40-plus times and lost. We lost to the Bengals. That was their first win of the year. They were ranked dead last against the run, and I got the ball like four times because we wanted to pass that much.”
I'll interject here to say Bell ran 10 times, for 32 yards. In fact, the Bengals only had a slight edge in total yards 277-271, but beat the Jets 22-6 thanks to a very Adam Gase team 10 penalties and 0-for-2 on 4th downs. It was Cincy's first win after starting the season 0-11.
Now is where Bell gets around to working in his A-material:
"He did a lot of shit in that office that a coach shouldn't be doing. But that's why he ain't no coach. "You know that white girl. SNNNIIIFFF [Author's note: So cocaine]. I'm like, I just walked into the office to see my coach! We about to go to practice, Bro! We got practice in 28 minutes! We got walk through, and THIS is what you’re doing in here? My own two [Author's note: "With my own two eyes"]. My own two. My own two."
See? This is the sort of top quality content we missed out on because the Jets shipped Bell to Kansas City at the trading deadline in 2020. We needed these two on their own mini-version of Hard Knocks, not splitting up like Hall & Oates. I mean, if there has ever been a Pro Bowl running back accusing his head coach of snorting the Devil's Dandruff off his desk and then running a practice high as a lab rat, I certainly don't recall it. Who knows, though? Maybe Larry Csonka once told Howard Cosell that Don Shula was always doing rails of the Florida Snow before two-a-days, and it went unnoticed because it was Miami in the '70s. But this seems like kind of a first to me.
Just to quiet the cold, black hearts of the Barstool legal team that Dave Portnoy hired based on the billboards where they pose with their arms folded saying that say "INJURED?" followed by a phone number, I am not accusing Adam Gase of using cocaine. Or any controlled substance of any kind. Or of even running halfback dives on 2nd & 9. Or even of coming up with terrible game plans that somehow managed to get his team beaten by an 0-11 team. Despite all evidence to the contrary.
What I am saying is that Le'Veon Bell is saying it. That is a fact not in dispute. If anyone's going to get sued for defamation of character or spreading falsehoods about an NFL coach using illegal, Schedule II narcotics while in the performance of his duties, that name on the lawsuit needs to belong to Bell and Bell alone. And if Gase doesn't take him to court over this, I think we'll have a pretty good indication of what the truth is.
Besides, it's not like we didn't all have our suspicions already:
It certainly would explain a lot.