Le'Veon Bell

Le'Veon Andrew Bell (born February 18, 1992) is an American football running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Michigan State, and was drafted by the Steelers in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft.

High school career
Bell attended Groveport Madison High School in Groveport, Ohio, where he played football, basketball, and ran track. He played running back for the Groveport Cruisers football team. As a sophomore, Bell ran for 789 rushing yards and nine touchdowns. As a junior, Bell ran for 1,100 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns, and as a senior, Bell ran for 1,333 yards on 200 carries with 21 touchdowns. He was selected first-team All-Ohio Capital Conference Ohio Division as a senior. In basketball, Bell earned second-team All-OCC Ohio Division honors as a junior. He also participated in track & field while at Groveport, where he ran the 100 and 200-meter dashes and was one of the state's top performers in the high jump (personal-best of 6'8" or 2.03 meters).

Considered a two-star recruit by ESPN.com, Bell was listed as the No. 211 running back in the nation in 2010. Although he was a 3-year starter in high school, Bell had limited scholarship offers from Bowling Green, Marshall, and Eastern Michigan, but he hoped to attend Ohio State. Bell's high school principal, Donis Toler Jr., believed he was under-recruited and reached out to Michigan State's head coach Mark Dantonio. Although Dantonio had heard of Bell, they had never scouted him personally or had thought of offering him a scholarship. With football season over, Dantonio sent his running back's coach to scout Bell at his high school basketball game. After he finished his senior football season, he finally received a scholarship offer from Michigan State after a number of players got into trouble and Michigan State had open scholarships available with a need at running back. In 2010, he graduated from high school early and began attending Michigan State that spring semester.

College career
Bell enrolled in Michigan State, where he played for the Michigan State Spartans team from 2010 to 2012.

Freshman season
As a freshman in 2010, he appeared in 13 games, rushing for 605 yards on 107 carries with eight rushing touchdowns. He also added 97 yards on 11 receptions and returned six kickoffs for 142 yards. In total, he had 844 all-purpose yards. He received All Big-Ten Freshman honors from ESPN.com and Rivals.com.

Sophomore season
As a sophomore in 2011, Bell led the Spartans in rushing with 948 yards on 182 carries and 13 touchdowns. Against the Iowa Hawkeyes, he had 161 yards of total offense and a rushing touchdown. Against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, he had 165 all-purpose yards (96 rushing, 38 receiving, and 31 kickoff return yards) and two total touchdowns in the game. Against #18 Georgia in the 2012 Outback Bowl, Bell rushed for 48 yards on 17 carries with two touchdowns and had five receptions for 39 yards in Michigan State's 33–30 victory.

Junior season
Against Eastern Michigan in 2012, Bell ran for a career-high 253 yards while also claiming the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week Award. He finished the season with 1,793 rushing yards, which finished second in the Big Ten. He was voted to the First Team All-Big Ten by the coaches and media, ESPN.com, College Football News, and Phil Steele.

After his junior season in 2012, Bell decided to forego his senior season and entered the 2013 NFL Draft.

College statistics

Professional career
Coming out of Michigan State, Bell was projected by the majority of analysts to be a second or third round selection. He was ranked as the fifth best running back by NFLDraftScout.com and ranked the best overall running back by NFL analyst Bucky Brooks. He received an invitation to the NFL Combine and participated in all workouts and positional drills. Bell was satisfied with his combine performance and only performed positional drills at Michigan State's Pro Day. Bell, Dion Sims, William Gholston, Johnny Adams, and five other Michigan State prospects worked out in front of scouts and representatives from 29 NFL teams. The only head coach that attended was Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Mike Tomlin. Scouts considered Bell a big bruising back with quick feet and lower body strength and also gave him positive reviews for his ability to run north-south, for his strong cuts, and nice bursts through holes. The only negative reviews were based on his limited ball-carrier vision, inconsistent blocking, and his height that would possibly affect his speed and ability to dodge tacklers.

Bell was selected in the second round with the 48th overall pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2013 NFL Draft. He was the second running back to be selected that year, only behind Giovani Bernard, who went 37th overall to the Cincinnati Bengals. On June 3, 2013, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed Bell to a four-year, $4.12 million rookie contract that includes $2.27 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $1.37 million.