Bell's Bad Day

In our haste to finish dusting off all our resources for the 2008 NFL season, which kicked off Thursday night, we haven't had the opportunity to comment on perhaps the most bizarre story of the year. So now that we can finally exhale, we're going to take the time to do so.

If you haven't heard already, it seems Tatum Bell apparently doesn't take kindly to being cut. Just ask running back Rudi Johnson, who was signed earlier this week to replace him on the Detroit Lions' roster. As first reported by Mike Florio of Profootballtalk.com, while Johnson was in a meeting with team coaches and president Matt Millen, two Gucci bags he had received as a Pro Bowl gift that he had brought along with him disappeared.

While checking the team's in-house security videos to see where the bags mysteriously vanished to, Bell was seen removing them from where Johnson left them. After contacting Bell, the bags were returned, but money and underwear (of all things) were missing from the bag.

For what it's worth, Bell says he grabbed the bags by mistake thinking they belonged to former teammate Victor DeGrate, whom the Lions had also released recently.

In our view, either this was just a big mistake on Bell's part as he explained or he is just really, really stooopid. With the level of security present at all NFL facilities, he had to know he was being video taped at all times.

But then again, maybe he didn't think about the cameras at the time and was simply preoccupied by the thought that this was probably the only chance he had of getting his hands on a gift given for making the Pro Bowl.

Photo: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images