Le’Veon Bell has been teammates with Antonio Brown on two different teams now, and the wideout’s latest misstep has done nothing to adversely impact Bell’s view on him.
Brown is now a free agent after getting cut by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That came after Brown took off his pads and ran to the locker room shirtless during the third quarter of Tampa’s comeback win over the New York Jets.
While some have been quick to criticize Brown, others, like Tom Brady, have taken a different approach. After Sunday’s game, Bell — who played with Brown on the Bucs and Pittsburgh Steelers — said he’d never say a bad word about Brown.
“I found out when we got into the locker room at the end of the game. I instantly sent him a text to try and catch up real quick. He texted me back and I talked to him,” Bell said after the game, via CBS Sports. “He’s still one of my close friends and you won’t hear me talk bad about AB at all.
“Obviously, I understand things happen, but he’s one of my close friends that I’ve been around. Close teammates. Overall, he’s a good person. Obviously, he’s had some bad decision making sometimes. He’s human. He’s not perfect. We’ll continue to move on without him and keep moving forward.”
He later reinforced that with a comment on Brown’s Instagram post Sunday night.
“(Goat emoji) idc what anyone says,” Bell commented.
It is clear that while Brown is being publicly maligned, there are a group of backers who are being vocal in support of him, even if not endorsing his actions.
Whether that’s enough to get him another shot in the NFL remains to be seen, but it’s fair to assume that after Sunday’s actions, his career is on life support.
