Steelers' Le'Veon Bell's threat to sit out season was April Fools' joke

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh running back Le’Veon Bell tried to pull an April Fools’ Day joke on Steelers Nation, tweeting that he would sit out the season if he was not given a long-term contract.

Bell’s Saturday morning tweet said, “ppl can say literally whatever they wanna say...but idc, I will LITERALLY sit out the WHOLE YEAR before I decide to play on the tag!”

The post was retweeted more than 1,000 times.

Later in the day, Bell returned to Twitter. “Lol everybody think this a joke...ok,” he said.

As it turns out, it was in fact a joke. He confirmed that with yet another tweet at midnight Sunday.

NBC Sports ProFootballTalk reported that Bell would be 2017's highest-paid NFL running back if he signed the tag, which guarantees him $12.12 million this season. He'd then be guaranteed either a $14.5 million salary next year or true unrestricted free agency.

Bell has had fun on April Fools’ Day before. In 2016, he shocked some fans when he tweeted that he decided to bring his time with the Steelers to an end -- which, of course, did not happen.

• Le'Veon Bell says he's 'gotta move on' from Steelers in April Fools' tweet

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