Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell’s season came to an abrupt end last year when he sustained an MCL and PCL injury while being tackled by Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict.
The hit was so severe that Bell underwent knee surgery in November. After making progress in his rehab, Bell posted this video of him running on the treadmill:
clear to run now…March 1st a big day! #JuiceisLoose #WaitOnIt pic.twitter.com/V3rsoyUUqo
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) March 1, 2016
Lo and behold, the man who inflicted Bell’s injury sent him this Twitter direct message, per Coley Harvey of ESPN:
“Good to see you back running, see you next year, bruh.”
In turn, Bell had this to say to Burfict in response:
“Appreciate it bro bro.”
Apparently, the two AFC North rivals are on speaking terms. That’s not something most would have expected following the scene we saw in Cincinnati when the Bengals hosted Pittsburgh in the playoffs.
After serving a two-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, Bell started in only six games for the Steelers in 2015.
In looking at the progress Bell has made since November, his outlook for the offseason looks promising.
On the other hand, Burfict will serve a three-game suspension due to his unnecessarily rough hit to Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown during the aforementioned playoff game. Brown missed the Steelers final playoff game after sustaining a concussion from Burfict’s head-to-head hit.
We will need to see if Burfict makes good on his recent one-on-one with commissioner Roger Goodell when the two discussed the linebacker cleaning up his questionable on-field behavior.
Per the usual NFL schedule, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati will face one another twice during the 2016 regular season.