Ethan Vance | staff writer

Former Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin recently posted his Minecraft world to YouTube, and his old star running back Le’Veon Bell took time to respond with a joke on X.

“We were tryna win super bowls and coach T was on Minecraft building cities,” Bell wrote.

This is ironic coming from Bell, who sat out the 2018 NFL season during a prime window for the Steelers, showing that ego can get in the way of winning. In the previous two offseasons, Bell and the Steelers had a contract dispute. Bell wanted a long-term deal, but the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement.

This prompted the Steelers to franchise tag Bell. A NFL franchise tag is a contract that binds players to a one-year deal with its salary determined by NFL rules. Teams usually use it on elite players to buy themselves another season of contract negotiations instead of letting the player hit free agency.

After the Steelers used the franchise tag on him for the second straight season, Bell decided to sit out rather than play without the deal he wanted. The decision meant the Steelers were missing a key offensive piece during their potential Super Bowl window.

I can’t pretend Bell was in the wrong about sitting out. Bell has the right to sit out and demand more. But my problem comes with him doing it in a prime window for the Steelers. The year before, the Steelers made the second round of the playoffs before losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The next season, they didn’t even make the playoffs.

Of course Bell wasn’t the lone reason the Steelers missed the playoffs that season, as other key contributors like Antonio Brown faced off-the-field issues. It was the idea of him sitting out after they were close to a Super Bowl over a contract that definitely was a factor.

That also begs the question: Did his pride hurt his play? Sitting out could have definitely harmed Bell’s long-term career. After his holdout, he signed with the New York Jets and tallied just 789 rushing yards, compared to 1,291 rushing yards the last year he played for the Steelers. The year after, he only had 328 rushing yards.

Bell had three 1,000 yard-plus rushing seasons with the Steelers and was also a three-time Pro Bowler. None of these accolades were achieved in his last three years in the league.

It’s not just NFL players who struggled with ego, though. Even some of the best athletes ever, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, have reportedly dealt with ego issues.

Ronaldo is considered the greatest soccer player of all time by many (not me), but his ego has always seemed to have been a problem for him.

His former Real Madrid teammate from 2008-2010 seems to agree.

“Ronaldo was so unbelievably selfish,” Rafael van der Vaart said in an interview with talkSPORT. “If we won 6-0 and he did not score, he was not happy. When we lose but he scored twice, it’d be alright.”

Ronaldo has also recently sparked controversy when he decided to leave Portugal’s training camp during the UEFA Nations League group stage. According to CBS Sports, on Sept. 27 Ronaldo was left out of the starting 11 against Norway. Manager Jorge Jesus told Ronaldo he would sub in the second half and told him to warm up, but he never did either.

It was only the third time in Ronaldo’s 22-year career with Portugal that he sat on the bench the full 90 minutes. After Portugal’s win, he walked straight back to the locker room and did not join his team on the pitch to applaud the fans.

It was also reported Ronaldo refused to train with the team.

“Do you think any player at the level of a national team would refuse to train?” Jesus said in the pre-game press conference. “Only if he wanted to leave. Nobody refuses to train.”

These are just two examples of Ronaldo putting his ego above his team. Ronaldo is now 41, playing in Saudi Arabia and well past his prime. After Portugal lost to Spain in the 2026 World Cup, he announced it was his last World Cup game. Instead of playing out his potential final games with Portugal, he decides to leave for not playing one game.

Not only does he care about his pride more than what’s best for the team, but it seems he cares more about his stats too. His former teammate said he’d be fine with losing as long as he scored. Of course we don’t know the full story, and we don’t know how Ronaldo has always acted.

But from what we do know, Ronaldo cares more about himself than the team and now he could never play for Portugal again. It goes to show even the best of players let their egos interfere.

But ego should never get in the way of yourself and — perhaps more importantly — your team.

Ethan Vance can be reached at vancee@duq.edu