July 16, 2018 before 4 p.m. ET was the NFL deadline for a contract extension agreement between Le'Veon Bell and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bell and the Steelers were in talks all day today, but as the day grew longer and longer, the optimism to get a long-term deal done began to fade. The deadline has passed and Bell will now be forced to play under the team's franchise tag.
Here's what Bell's agent, Adisa Bakari had to say:
Makes it official. https://t.co/bk3hhfcQFF
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) July 16, 2018
At this point, Bell may take the same approach he did last year when he sat until week 1 of the NFL's regular season. Here's what he had to say via Twitter:
to all my Steeler fans, my desire always has been to retire a Steeler...both sides worked extremely hard today to make that happen, but the NFL is a hard business at times...to the fans that had hope, I’m sorry we let youu down but trust me, 2018 will be my best season to date...
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) July 16, 2018
