The New York Jets hoped to breakthrough this season and be the kind of surprise that their divisional rival Buffalo Bills have been, crashing the playoff party behind their second-year quarterback and stout defense.
The Jets, at 5-8, simply haven’t gained that kind of traction and with losses to the Bengals and Dolphins, both of whom were previously winless on the season, they’ve had some incredibly low lows. They’ve also had some incredibly unfortunate injury/illness luck, most notably involving Sam Darnold catching mono and missing a few games early in the season.
Most recently, star running back Le’Veon Bell got the flu and had to miss Sunday’s 22-21 win over the Dolphins. Bell was apparently not cleared by doctors to play because he was still contagious, even as he felt a bit better, so on Saturday night he decided to go enjoy some me-time by hitting the bowling alley. This, naturally, became a story, which Bell found surprising, but not as surprising as his performance on the lanes as he was apparently slammin’ rocks on Saturday to the tune of a career-best 251 score.
The Flu Game for @LeVeonBell: He bowled a 251 on Saturday night.
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) December 10, 2019
Anyone that’s had a tremendous bowling outing understands why he would want to point out his performance to the masses. A career-best of 238 is strong, but a 251 is special stuff. As Adam Gase noted when he was pressed on the situation, there’s no reason the Jets should punish Bell for going out on a Saturday night to bowl, especially if sick and not able to play the next day. It’s one thing to be able to roll, it’s another to play professional football. In any case, congrats to Bell on the achievement in his own personal flu game at the lanes.
