Andy Reid, Tyrann Mathieu put Le’Veon Bell comment story to rest

Kansas City head coach Andy Reid responded to former Chiefs running back Le’Veon Bell’s comments from over the weekend by — as we might have expected — not really responding at all. In an Instagram comment, Bell had said that he would retire before playing for Reid again.

“Listen, I really enjoyed my time with him here,” said Reid in his mandatory minicamp wrap-up presser on Thursday. “I appreciated the way he handled things and did his business. He had some productive downs for us, and I’m pulling for him in the future. I mean, that’s how I roll. People say things, they say things. I move on, and I wish him the best.”

In a reserve role in 2020, Bell appeared in nine games, carrying the ball 63 times for 254 yards and two touchdowns and recorded 13 catches for 99 yards. He had two touches during the postseason. He later apologized for airing his grievances on social media but not for the content of his statement.

“You never like to see things like that, especially when I think so highly of a guy like Le’Veon and like Coach Reid,” said tight end Travis Kelce on Wednesday. “I don’t know, it’s just unfortunate, but I don’t talk about other guys’ situations. I don’t know what happened between them, and you know, I just appreciate Le’Veon coming in and working as hard as he did because I know it was a unique, different situation that he was in.”

In response to the news making the rounds on Sunday, Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu weighed in.

“These fellas will blame everybody for their lack of success,” wrote Mathieu. “That’s how I know I’m built different.”

The safety elaborated a bit on Thursday when asked about why Bell might have been disgruntled.

“I’m not sure — I feel like he was a great teammate when he was here,” explained Mathieu. “Things don’t go our way. It’s a performance-based business. It’s a lot of things that determine our performance. It’s not just what we do on the football field.

“I’m wishing him the best. I’m hoping things get better for him. This is probably one of the finest organizations I’ve ever been a part of, as far as the locker room, coaches — they’re transparent, they’re honest — and I think in this business, that’s really all you can ask for. It’s honesty from coaches because they don’t have to tell us the truth, but I do feel like coach Reid and his staff — they’re some of the best people and coaches I’ve been around.”

And with that, the Chiefs-Bell story has been put to rest in Kansas City. At this writing, Bell is still a free agent.