Le'Veon Bell Defends Relationship With Adam Gase: 'We Actually Like Each Other'

New York Jets running back Le'Veon Bell defends head coach Adam Gase over "miscommunication" last week due to hamstring tightness.

The relationship between Le’Veon Bell and New York Jets head coach Adam Gase is nothing but positive with the running back saying that recent reports of friction between the two completely overblown.

The reports of the Jets star running back and his head coach butting heads has been reported, documented and insinuated over the past year. But nothing could be further from the truth according to Bell. And Bell’s feisty response on social media to being pulled from a scrimmage last week is overblown.

“So I think we just had that conversation about my hamstring is a problem, I’ll talk to you directly about my hamstring directly instead of having two, three, four middlemen and then it finaly gets to the head guy and then there is miscommunication. And that’s all it really was was miscommunication. It’s not really a big deal, I feel good,” Bell said on Wednesday in a virtual press conference.

“Me and coach Gase had a great talk – and we talk all the time – but we had a great talk that day about communication, what we learned from the scrimmage and moving on from what we’re working on. We’ve had positive talks ever since he’s gotten ever since I got here

“I don’t know why people saying me and coach Gase are against each other. We’re not against each other. I know how hard it is to believe that, we actually like each other.”

The latest locking of horns came a week ago when Bell was pulled from the Jets scrimmage at the team facility after Gase received a report from the medical staff that the running back had a hamstring injury. Bell took to social media to post a rather innocuous tweet about needing reps to get ready for the season and not wanting to be pulled from practice, even as a precaution.

His tweet was seen as lashing out, especially since there had been reports dating back a year ago that Bell and Gase didn’t get along. On Wednesday, he said it reiterated multiple times that it was “a miscommunication”

Last season, Bell had a down year with the Jets, his first in New York. He had a career low rushing yards per attempt (3.2) and yards per reception (7.7). A major part of the reason was due to an offensive line that didn’t give him much help in terms of opening running lanes.

Now with a revamped offensive line and Bell showing up to camp in great shape, the hope is for a bounceback year from a player who was considered the prize signing of free agency last year.