568 Both Friend and Foe

Le'Veon Bell admitted that when he last contacted Li Wei after a game, he had a personal interest in mind. He was frustrated for the entire season due to being forced to sign the franchise tag contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers and knew that he might again face negotiation problems during the offseason.

He needed to unite more strength to truly make the voices of running backs heard.

At that time, Bell hadn't anticipated that Li Wei would actually make it to the end and ultimately succeed. He reached out to Li Wei purely because of the young man's Chinese heritage and the backing of Goodell, hoping this could gain additional attention and public support for the running backs.

Likewise, Bell didn't expect that Li Wei would actually stand up and be willing to go to such lengths, even outdoing Gurley, who had quietly kept his tail between his legs after renewing with the Los Angeles Rams, showing an air of detachment and being of no help at all.