Le’Veon Bell Cleared to Start Running Again

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell has reached a key milestone in his recovery from a torn MCL suffered in mid-2015. Bell posted a video on his Instagram account showing him running steadily on a treadmill, enthusiastically telling fans there wasn’t a “limp in [his] step.”

The news is obviously excellent for Steeler Nation, who never really got the chance to watch their beloved “Killer Bs” in action for any sustained amount of time last season.

Bell and Martavis Bryant both missed time due to separate suspensions over drug policy violations. By the time Bell returned to the lineup in week 3, Ben Roethlisberger was ruled out for a month. Ben’s return in week 8 coincided with Bell’s season-ending injury in an errant tackle at the hands of Vontaze Burfict and the Bengals.

The Steelers then made do with pick-up-of-the-year DeAngelo Williams, who wound back the clock with a 900-yard, 11-touchdown season – most of it as a three-down running back. On the rare occasion that both backs were on the field at the same time, Pittsburgh showed a penchant for fanning Bell off as a wide receiver in shotgun formations while keeping Williams in the backfield.

With so much variation in the recovery time for athletes coming off an injury this severe, it’s encouraging to see Bell sticking to his timetable. It is yet to be seen whether his quick cuts, acceleration and explosiveness have remained untainted during his rehabilitation, but all signs look positive thus far.

The week has been an eventful one for Le’Veon, who also dropped his debut mixtape this week to very mixed reviews. Well, you have to do something while recovering, right?

Bell also shared with fans a motivational text message sent by Burfict himself, congratulating Bell on his recovery and wishing him the best next year. The act shows that Burfict – while seeming to be a complete fool on the field, incapable of keeping his emotions in check and his game within the rules – at least seems to be a compassionate dude when out of pads and cleats.