Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

Social media offers paths into the lives of close friends and total strangers. It can reconnect those who have lost track of each other and feels as if it could be a thread that binds—stitching up old wounds—if handled surgically and applied carefully. It also can prove what fools we can make of ourselves before we even realize we’re doing so.

The once great Pittsburgh Steeler running back Le’Veon Bell finds himself in the latter category, after one day taking on his most recent coach, Kansas City’s Andy Reid, on Instagram and then later attempting on Twitter to (sort of) clarify his negativity.

Too late.

Bell committed an act of defenestration. He threw Kansas City Coach Andy Reid out of a high social media window and to the wind, only to find himself pulled right after his former coach. Bell acknowledged that while he meant what he said, he would have been better off being discreet and keeping his social media mouth shut.

This can be difficult to do.

Social media is a mouthpiece for the fingers. Sometimes . . . to give the finger. It can sound like an electronic megaphone. That was the case when Bell announced unceremoniously, “I’d never play for Andy Reid again . . . I’d retire first.” After running impressively in Pittsburgh at the beginning of his National Football League career, which also is pockmarked with suspensions, fines, and an inability to reach mutually satisfactory financial agreements, he sat out the 2018 season during a contract dispute. Bell has not endeared himself to subsequent teams. He played 11 games during the 2020 season, which he divided between Kansas City (nine) and the New York Jets.

In Pittsburgh, Bell developed an effective, hesitating running style. He picked his holes carefully, even cautiously, and then burst through them. He would have been wise to apply the style to social media. “I’ll admit,” he said in his follow-up tweets, “that’s somethin’ I could’ve and should’ve kept to myself & I apologize about that and that only . . . but I don’t regret what I said, because that’s how I feel . . .”

Bell did not, however, explain in any detail why he feels about Reid as he does. Reid, who coached the Chiefs to the Lombardi Trophy two years ago and back into the Super Bowl last season, where they lost to Tom Brady and Tampa Bay, has had a long, successful NFL career and is generally regarded as one of its most respected coaches. He apparently said something and/or did something to which Bell took offense.

The rest is social media history and will live on forever on the internet.

As they gather together for the first time for their mandatory minicamp, the Cleveland Browns might want to avoid such social media moments as they attempt to show, not just tell, everyone that their Super Bowl potential is real. Unlike some teams, this will be the only time they will be together prior to the beginning of preseason practice. When they talk with one another and then tell their story those beyond the walls of Berea, they should consider following the example of Jarvis Landry. They should speak directly to their aspiration, the same one that all teams have but not everyone can reach.

There is such excitement about and anticipation of the 2021 season that a reported sellout crowd of 7,000 attended the Jarvis Landry and Friends Celebrity Softball game in Eastlake, some showing up early before the charity event to tailgate at Classic Park.

Landry, unlike Bell, does not dodge the specifics. He told Cleveland.com Browns writer Mary Kay Cabot and other media that acknowledging the elephant does not mean he and his teammates cannot saddle the beast and ride into the team’s first Super Bowl. “Why not? Cabot reported Landry asking. Why not indeed. Big dreams for big deeds.

“It’s something that people always say you should not talk about, but nobody trains, or does what they do, to not be a champion. So that’s the standard. Yeah, we haven’t made it yet. But every team (has) drafted players to be a championship team. They signed free agents to be a championship team. So why not talk about it?” It’s real. It’s sick to be humble about what everybody is actually chasing.”

Landy has a team and a team cause. Le’Veon Bell has no team and a personal cause. His first team (Pittsburgh) and one of the more recent ones (Kansas City) are among those whose players have, by and large, chosen to participate in voluntary offseason Organized Team Activities. The Browns have found themselves in a dilemma. They want to get better to become a potential Super Bowl team, but they have to balance that desire against the fact that their center and one of the offensive leaders, JC Tretter, is president of the NFL Players Association. He has discouraged participating in OTAs, not to hurt the team but to protect the players. He believes less physicality and fewer offseason activities and preseason games will help them stay healthier through a season extended to 17 games. It is equivalent to the formula the NFL and Browns applied successfully during the 2020 season to survive the coronavirus pandemic.

Nevertheless, teams that become truly joined in drives for success do so as one. During the years quarterback Bernie Kosar led the Browns to three AFC Championship Games during five straight playoffs, the coming together was a tangible thing. Now, Kosar sees it in these Browns. “Look at all the players who are here today, this is a voluntary day,” he told Cabot before Landry’s event. “So many people could be out doing other things, but teammates genuinely want to stay here. They want to stay in Cleveland and not only help out the community but they [also] want to help out their brothers on the team.

“And when you have that genuine love and respect within the team, which I know our team did in the ’80s—and it resonates still—you can really see that within this team and this group of guys.”

Social media can bring people together or drive wedges between them. The Kosar Browns, a team of amity, did not live at a distance or on social media. They were one.