Listen: Le'Veon Bell (9/9)

right now. Okay, So where did the love of dogs start for me? Probably when I was about four. I remember we had this dog. His name was Lucky, and my mom had him and he was our first dog, her my first dog I seen. I was alive and I just live Lucky. He's just you know what I'm saying, just playing around, And that's why I start I love it dogs. Really, when I was like four years old. Just what kind of dog was Lucky? Like you was

a Golden Retriever. That's a good first dog. He used to I used to love someone because he's literally was so good at running with the football. So he was like he had these like we had these little nerfball, So you were chasing him, to chase him and nobody, Me and my little cousins, little brothers, as we got older. When Lucky got older, you know, we used to put him in the yard. He had a ball. Nobody can

touch him. He wouldn't. He took riety and he would like tuck his button everything like he wouldn't let nobody touch. This sounds like air but to me, like the movies, for real, that's he's our first air bud. That's what he was. But he went this all perpose. He ain't play basketball and baseball. He was strictly football. It starts with Lucky. But now you as an adult, grown man, thirteen dogs? Why the number? Why do you keep on

just going? Um? To be honest, probably because I walk into pet smart or something trying dog food and cut you know what. That's how literally how it starts like um. And then the Rocks had puppies, So then that's how we how I kind of got started. And we sold all the puppies and we kept one and then I

don't know, that's how I started. That's so funny. I feel like that's how everyone wants to just keep collecting, like for me when I go to the grocery store, I'm like, I know I want this, like for you, like you know you need dog food. I know I need chicken or whatever. Yeah, I've never had that. How do you go about the name? You don't have to go through all thirteen right now, otherwise their podcast will be over. But but how do you go about the selection of the name. So at first, we wanted to

start with all bees. Um, so my mom, my mom had a dog. His name was Z. He just passed away, but he was our oldest dog. He was him in sixth grade, but Z right, So Z was our first dog. And after Z, I got beautiful, and I wanted to start all bees, right, So that's how I got started. Then bees and bees and beast going bees and bees, and then I couldn't think it's gonna be more be names. I can image, like look in the dictionary, like okay,

maybe that, So then it started. Then we gotta we got a German chepd her name was Her name is Lady right, So then we wanted to have her and our other dogs sir. We got sir to made with her or whatever. Um, so we just thought of like lady and sir, Like, that's how it's gonna start, like ladies, sir. Then yeah, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, it's just crazy how I don't know how we'll started coming both it. Then one of our dogs name, I would get interesting

dog names. So then we gotta dog name five. Right. Do you don't know why her name is five? You have any idea? And I don't want to be wrong and guess wrong. I don't want to guess all right, So she literally are the fifth puppy like in her litter. So that's why I named her five. It was just literally that like, because I literally couldn't even think of at the time of name for because I wanted to. I wanted to her because she was the smallest dog in the letter to it. I just fell in love

with her, you know what I'm saying. So um, she was like, I was like, all right, we're gonna name her five. That's what it was. It's stuck to her. It's stuck. So but it's gotta be tough for you up here in New Jersey and you don't have any

dog around right now, right, Well, it's terrible myself. I only can play the game or write music or something like usually go home, I see beautiful and she just crazy, you know what I'm saying, so excited to see like, no matter like, no matter what, she's always happy to see me, no matter what. How like dogs, you could like lock them away and the kennel and they can be locked up all day. So we let him out the kindle all my gun. You let me have the

kind on, you know what I'm saying. So it's like Xbox doesn't never never Xbox, girlfriend's mom's sisters, none of them, none of them treat So listen, I share this with you. I got my Reggie at home and he is everything. You know, no matter what happens during the day, they're always excited to see unconditional love. Man. But that's what it's all about. Um, when you're not writing music, what music are you listening to? Oh so I listened to?

I mean I got a lot of variety, right, but my go to has lately been like Drake Young Thug Gonna, T Grizzy. You're like T Grizzy a lot, Travis Scott Losey. There's a lot of people I listen to. What I'm thinking about. I'm just here. Her name of people. But it was like, like literally every day. It's like, you know, I like Little Keyed, Um, It's it's it's a it's

a variety of music I listened to. But you know, I mean, if you want to talk about me, like it depends on the move going out there, you're ready for a football game, I might listen to something different rather than when I'm just riding in the car, just about to drive home and I know I gotta drive for thirty minutes. So but like season open before the Buffalo, what were you listening to? Grizzy Grizzy Pray for this

Drip that's my song? What if? What if I asked you who you'd want to collab with, Like whether it be a current artist, someone you listen to growing up, Who's somebody that you really want to do something with? Um, I mean I really wanted to I wanted to do something big with a little dirt, and I made that happen. You know, Dirk was um. He worked with me, and he's like one of the most humble people I've ever

met in my life. Because it's crazy. You get a lot of a lot of fame and a lot of you know, people draw attention to you, it's easy to kind of go in the shell a little bit. But little Dirk was a guy. He was just open minded and he worked with an athlete knowing Um, that was like huge for me. Um. That song will be dropping pretty soon. And uh, Drake is another one, you know, I want to work with Drake Um. And a girl like a girl want to work with two. Her name

is Megan Stallion. Ok. Yeah she good too. Yeah. Like people don't know yet, but they will, Yeah, they will because I'm gonna make it happy. Man. I'm gonna make it happen in some type of way and make it happen. So just leave me on. But I'll sleep because I yes, your moll Adams that as well. Because seriously, because anybody who gets an opportunity to meet you, your energy, bro. You're bringing it everything. You're bringing it on the field,

you're bringing it on the practice field. You're bringing it when you go home and you write music. Do you sleep? I do sleep. Actually it was hard for me to sleep Saturday night. I went to sleep. Well, I went to bed and like I probably fell asleep. I went I laid down like eleven o'clock and I probably want to sleep probably eleven thirty and I woke up with like five am because I was so ready for the game. You have ready roll. I woke like five am. Isn't

that unbelievable? Though, Like I literally couldn't sleep. I feel like I was get ready for Christmas. I was going to say that, Yeah, this is exactly. It's just like I'm just up. So I'm just sitting there just trying to watch highlights and like, let's get Are you watching highlights to yourself? Honestly no, I mean I've watched highlights of myself the night before, but that morning now I didn't. I didn't. I watched it with myself. So I watched

say Kwan Barkley. Oh, I see what you're doing. Yeah, I watched Klan Barkley. I watched the Barry Sanders, and I watched Ladenia Thomason. And are you on YouTube? Doing this on YouTube? It's just like one of us because you're all over YouTube right now. Why don't you tell people what you're doing on your page? Oh with the music or the video with everything YouTube? I mean on YouTube everything you're blowing up. We got the mic up.

The mike up thing was huge, um because people I don't think people really get a sense of hi I am off the field, you know what I mean. People kind of see me playing football and it's like, oh, he's a good football player, and it's that another they hear about me in the media, you know, but don't really know my personality, like just on a daily basis, you know. Not think I'm gonna use my YouTube to kind of show people like, oh, yeah, this is me, like lady on, build a person, you know, not just

the football player. Yeah, it's interesting that the guys that you took a watch at prior to your first game with the Jets, Barry Sanders, he he was always your guy, right, my favorit running back, My favorit running back. Yeah, and I know he loved the Curtis Martin growing up. But what stood out to you about Barry Barry He's a a lot of people don't really understand. But it was his patience, right. It was like this draw play they

was running with the Detroit lines. I have no idea how they were running it, but it was like the quarterback could dropped back. Barry Sandral really just wait back there they're handing the ball. Then it's like he can pick either way to go. And I feel like he just was never wrong, like on that draw play, you know, I mean, don't get me wrong. He I think he he had the most ours loss in his career, right, but he was literally losing the yards and try to

gain yards. That's that's literally what it was. It was like I respect that, like I he was going for the checkler everything. But he's like literally my favorite runner, you know, and um just about you know, he had patience that change the directions unbelievable. I don't even know how he was doing it. And um, and his balance, his balance was his balance and his vision was really uh I think underrated, you know, um, but that's what really made him who He was his balance, vision and

obviously everybody knows about his change direction. And Barry Sanders really wasn't like the fastest guy, but he was fast enough to get you know, to break a long run. But he wasn't really the fastest guy. He didn't really depend on his speed. He changed he he depended on his change direction and his vision and his patience. Man, we talked about this before, but I go back and speaking about highlights. I look at you at Michigan State and well that's a big, bruising back. Two fifty. You're

totally transformed, man. And every time I see you on the football field now, as we saw against the Buffalo Bills in the season opener, you're so explosive. When you look back at your metamorphosis as far as wherever you come from, believable, it's unbelievable. So were on Friday. We was in the team meeting or not the team in the running backs room. UM in the meeting, and we was watching my Michigan State highlights and all the running

backs like, whoa, that's you. I was like, no, like, but it's crazy because my running style was the same. It's just I was a lot slower and I was stronger. Like I was obviously strong because I was bigger. So D'Antonio had you in the weight room. Yeah you're just crushing, but you're probably heavy heavy, squat, heavy bench every time, you know. And it was just crazy because when I look at it was like I still had the moves, you know. I was still spinning and you jump over

people like not a breakout game. I was still doing all that. It was just now it's now I'm a lot more explosive. Now I'm a lot quicker. And I think this over the course of my person of my career, from my junior year to my rookie year to my second year in the league, I just understood, like, oh yeah, I could be a better player if I just make me be a little quicker, a little more explosive, you know, not have to depend on just if it's a fire I run. But I could have been fifteen, you know

what I'm saying. That's the difference, you know, because you want to be explosive in this game, right everybody's not really looking for the big rules and back no more, you know. And I understood that. I knew I could catch passes out of the back field, I could run routes, but I knew people wouldn't really go look at me like that if I was to forty. You know what I'm saying, I know how to get down to um.

Your Your story is unbelievably, it's unbelievable as far as the trajectory you were too star recruiters coming out of high school. You carry that chip to this day? Do I do? Just because of the fact that I know where I came from and I know you know, a lot of people doubted me. I just remember in high school just walking around the hallways and I was, you know, my close friends and I was talking to They knew where my goal was and my dream was to go

to NFL and stuff. But I don't think a lot of people would believed it, you know, um or believed I could do it, you know, even you know my high school coaches. You know, you got a couple of them who maybe I knew I could do it or whatever. But it's just like I remember, the only person who was really always in my corner with my like my mom.

Like my mom was making sure like any camp that I wanted to go to, like if I wanted to go to Penn State camp or like Akriant Camp or Ohio camp or whatever, she made sure she saved up enough money, you know, so so we can travel and go to the camp, you know, and I can kind of showcase my talent and then try to get a scholarship. You know, my mom was like in my corner the whole time, pushing me. She still is. She means everything to everything, like literally everything, because she was here when

you signed. I signed, yep, when I signed, like She's gonna be right there at the whole time, the whole time. Is it true that Ohio State in West Virginia recruited you to play safety? Yes, West Virginia and Michigan Virginia and Michigan Ohio State, it would recruit me for like both sides, Yeah, both sides. Um, they was gonna give me an opportunity at running back. But they didn't get an offer from none of those schools, like no scholarship from none of those schools. Do you remind Jamal Adams

that they were coming after you to play safety? HEYT worried about that, worry about that. I did not want to place they Do you ever think about like for someone that's so go, go go, you always bring in the energy. You have so many things to do, whether

it be music, video games, whatever it is. You ever take a second and think from even what was talking about, even when you were two forty five or a high school kid too, star, You ever take a thing or take a second to think about like where you are now and how different that is even though it's probably just a couple of years ago. I do you know, and I mean it was born a couple of years ago.

One of those things it feels like yesterday, but it also feels like forever if it definitely flew by, Like I mean, don't get me wrong, It's like sometimes it'll take like me watching like on Friday, me watching the Mission State Highlight, and then I'll think about, like that is crazy. I was too forty and then I had to really transform my body, had to go on this diet.

And ever since I went on that diet, you know, from my from my junior year, going into my training, going into my rookie year, ever since I started that diet, it changed my life because it's like that's my lifestyle now,

Like I eat totally different now, you know. So it's just crazy, how like just from me like trying to change my mindset from my junior year going to the NFL, from my rookie year, my whole my whole mindset has changed on the way I eat or what I eat or what I drink and put it in my body, you know, and it may be literally who are person out in the day, you know, I'm glad that it happened. When it happened, I was a twenty year old kid

who made the decision. Now I'm sitting here in twenty seven and it made me a person At the end of the day, did you feel like you were back home again when you put the pads on, you came out of that tunnel, you got the ovation, you got twenty three touches. I like the fact that you got

twenty three touches. I think some of the great athletes we've ever seen, and you know, for me, it was always Michael Jordan's and I we talked about I'm Jay last week kind of hurt when I'm Jay went away from the game for a little bit and we didn't

see him. But when he came back, you know, that was something else and you were back where you were meant to be on the field, and it felt and it felt good, you know, because I just know, I just remember waking up on that day, waking up yesterday and just getting on like my normal my phone, like a normal day is looking at my auto text messages I had going on Twitter, Instagram, just like so many people were just ready for that day, you know, and

it felt it felt amazing to me. You know. I remember when I'm in the warm ups, I'm just thinking, like, man, we're almost there, and I'm just trying to stay calm. Like I'm like trying to stay calm, but it's like everything give me is like, bro, can we just play

football already? Like you know what I'm saying. Like I was just already to play because it felt it has been a long time coming, you know, so um, I had to sit out all the preseason games and be out there with my guys and rout them all and stuff. So it just felt good to be out there with him, you know. And obviously not the outcome we wanted, you know, but we wanted to make I made sure that, Like, I'm glad that I got out of the game healthy and I was actually able to play the game again,

you know, and I had fun doing it. You know, that game was fun. It was a rivalry game, you know, guys out there having fun, you know, and uh, we're gonna we're gonna get back to the drawing board and get everything right. But I'm just glad that, you know, I'm actually back in the midst of things. She getting my body when I woke up this morning, I was happy. I was sure. Yeah, I was like, oh yeah, hurt, I'm back. Was her favorite play, I mean the touchdown catch.

Obviously you get back in that and so on and and that was a beautiful Brad. But you you had a couple of runs out there, including fourth, and gave your team a chance to still gain victory. I never run my favorite how about backed up? I mean those like one of my favorite runs, my favorite play. It was like a third and seven or something and we

threw it the crowder, but I had a blitz pick up. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, and dude trying to buy rush and I smack him so hard, like that was my favorit play because it's like people must have forgotten this, this is what I take prior to I take pride and you know, blocking like blitz pick up and people trying to buy rush me. I'm like, no, that's not happening. Yeah, you're about to do that, and

you got praised for it on Hard Knocks. Yeah yeah, because that's somethingbody lookally like more than like a tenure run. I take way more pride than like pick picking up a blitz, especially like a good rusher or something and blocking them because that's literally like me versus you. You know what I'm saying, Like if I get a good run. I mean, it takes my read and stuff, but I depend on everybody up front. You gotta make sure Sam

put me in the right play. The guys and I'll say, I gotta do their jobs, you know what I'm saying. It's like a collected thing and it's like a good run that goes. But when it comes to blitz pick up, and I know it's it's me verse one, diy, it's me versus you, and I win that. That's just that's pride, you know what I'm saying. And a lot of guys don't really take that, you know, or that prideful about the bit pick up, you know. And that's what I think separates me from a lot of running backs because

I'm not letting my quarterback get hit. You know what I'm saying, I'm not gonna happen. You have an infectious personality. Your teammates have gravitated towards you. I think you got miscast maybe because of people's misconceptions of what happened in Pittsburgh. You have a lot of love for a number of things. But make no mistake, he loved playing football. Anybody who goes out there and watches you a practice. You don't. You have to have to be out there in game.

You love the game, and uh, you're off to a good start. I know you guys didn't get the I'll come you want it, but you look like the vintage Levy on bout. I think good things are. I agree. I just want to know one thing before we wrap up. The defense got called out individually this past game, Like when in player introductions, if the offense does it and it's you, where's your hype level there? Yeah? I figured like undescribable. I think maybe that's why we got introduced first,

because they noticed money night game. Okaying, all right, that's all we have the Official Jets podcast, leave us a review, Apple Podcast, Few York Jets dot Com, SoundCloud, big thanks to levy on Bout. Then that's all we got for this week. We'll see you next time. F