Tatum Bell leaves a lasting impression in Detroit?

[DeToxRox]

This is per PFT .. I take it for what it's worth but wow could this be an amazing story if true.

RUDI’S CRAZY DAY IN DETROIT
Posted by Mike Florio on September 2, 2008, 9:17 p.m.

A strange thing happened to running back Rudi Johnson when he visited with the Detroit Lions on Monday.

Someone stole his stuff.

Seriously.

Specifically, and as we’re told by a reliable source (i.e., not the person who told Mort that Joey Harrington had agreed to terms with the Ravens on Monday, or the person who told John Clayton that Todd Bouman had agreed to terms with the Ravens on Tuesday), Johnson left his bags outside CEO Matt Millen’s office while he met with team officials and, ultimately, worked out a deal with the team.

So when Johnson came back to get his bags, they were nowhere to be found. Johnson and Millen were stumped.

Enter the eye in the sky.

The team checked the videotapes generated by the team’s in-house surveillance system, and they quickly identified the culprit.

So who might it have been? None other than Tatum Bell, who lost his gig with the Lions after Rudi arrived.

Per the source, Bell took the bags to the house of a female acquaintance. When confronted on the matter, Bell offered up some cockamamie story that he thought the bags belonged to someone he knew. The girl, however, said that she hadn’t seen Bell in several months and he showed up out of the blue and asked her to keep the bags for a while.

Johnson has retrieved the bags, and it’s our understanding that charges won’t be pressed.

Tatum apparently didn’t know that he was being monitored.

Fortunately, the displaced running back wasn’t Najeh Davenport.

[SFL Cat]

Oops.

[RendeR]

Dumbass of the week award goes tooo, you guessed it, MR. TATUM BEEEEEEllllllllll!

[Lathum]

thats awesome

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Class act, all the way...

Good riddance.

[Groundhog]

LOL

Awesome.

I could tell so many great stories about some of the security camera footage I've seen at my company over the years.

[TazFTW]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

Fortunately, the displaced running back wasn’t Najeh Davenport.

That's a shame.

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by TazFTW

That's a shame.

Well, something that starts with sh at least.

[lighthousekeeper]

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

LOL

Awesome.

I could tell so many great stories about some of the security camera footage I've seen at my company over the years.

Well, go ahead.

[Raiders Army]

Wasn't he a Bronco?

[CleBrownsfan]

moron...

[B & B]

Najeh "Dookie" Davenport... would have left something inside the bags...

Trading away Dre Bly for scraps is becoming more and more obvious. OT Foster was a bust last season and now Bell is gone.

[PackerFanatic]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

Fortunately, the displaced running back wasn’t Najeh Davenport.

Best part of the story.

That guy is never going to live it down - then again, I don't know how he could.

Don't even leave Najeh alone with your closet...

[TLK]

The comments on PFT are classic:

"wow…it’s probably the quickest tatum moved all preseason "

"Funniest thing I’ve heard all year! Once again, the Lions had to check the tape to see how their defense let a guy through untouched. "

"Tatum Bell: as elusive off the field as he was on it."

[muns]

Originally Posted by TLK

The comments on PFT are classic:

"wow…it’s probably the quickest tatum moved all preseason "

"Funniest thing I’ve heard all year! Once again, the Lions had to check the tape to see how their defense let a guy through untouched. "

"Tatum Bell: as elusive off the field as he was on it."

Thats some good stuff right there.

If the Lions facility is anything like what the Ravens old practice facility was like, stupidity doesnt even begin to cover it. There is cameras every 10 feet in the Ravens old complex. You would think something should have registered.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by B & B

Trading away Dre Bly for scraps is becoming more and more obvious. OT Foster was a bust last season and now Bell is gone.

As many times as Dre Bly got smoked last year, this looks like a pretty good deal for Detroit.

[Ragone]

Apparently some of the surveillance video shots have been leaked

[Ragone]

dola.. funny line on pft

An interesting twist is that, earlier on Monday, Bell and Johnson had a good conversation about the city of Detroit, the team, practice schedules, etc. According to the source, though, that was before Bell "put two and two together'' about Johnson's presence in Detroit.

- Usually when Tatum puts two and two together it equals 3rd and long

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by Ragone

dola.. funny line on pft

An interesting twist is that, earlier on Monday, Bell and Johnson had a good conversation about the city of Detroit, the team, practice schedules, etc. According to the source, though, that was before Bell "put two and two together'' about Johnson's presence in Detroit.

- Usually when Tatum puts two and two together it equals 3rd and long

That's awesome

[Pumpy Tudors]

What is PFT?

[sterlingice]

There's nothing that isn't funny about this story and, the Najeh Davenport line most of all.

SI

[Honolulu_Blue]

Here's the latest on the story. Some great quotes here:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...0903043/&imw=Y

Johnson said when the bags were returned Tuesday, they were empty – missing his identification, credit cards, about $200 in cash and some undergarments.

“All this happened once he got released,” Johnson said Wednesday as he came off the practice field. “He came here to get some stuff out of his locker. That’s when he scooped the bags up. Some real shyster, conniving stuff, man.”

Bell said it was an honest mistake. He said he intended to pick up some bags for a former teammate, and he grabbed the wrong ones. He said he never opened the bags and doesn’t have anything of Johnson’s.

“I ain’t no thief,” Bell told the Free Press in a phone interview. “I ain’t never been one, and I ain’t never going to be one. It was all a misunderstanding.

“You can ask anybody I played with for all my years or anybody that know me, man. They know I ain’t never stolen nothing from nobody or had those kind of intentions.”

Johnson visited the Lions on Monday and agreed to a one-year contract. He officially signed Tuesday, and Bell was released to make room on the 53-man roster.

Here are the two versions of what happened:

First, Johnson’s:

Johnson left his bags in the locker room Monday while he visited president Matt Millen’s office. They were Gucci bags he had gotten at the Pro Bowl.

“It was top of the top,” Johnson said.

When he came back in the evening, they were gone. The first thought was that the cleaning staff had put them away. He still didn’t know where they were when he spoke to the media Tuesday afternoon.

But later Tuesday afternoon, Lions director of security Ricky Sandoval showed Johnson a surveillance video of Bell taking the bags. How did Bell look?

“Suspect,” Johnson said.

Was he wearing a ski mask?

“He might as well,” Johnson said.

The bags were at a woman’s house, and the woman brought them to Lions headquarters – empty. Johnson said he canceled his credit cards.

Johnson joked about it:

“I got the bags back empty,” he said. “So he got a bunch of my underclothes. What he’s going to do with that, I don’t know. …

“He left the money clip, but he didn’t leave no money in it. He should have took the clip, too. …

“If anybody’s got some Perry Ellis boxers for sale, you know where they came from.”

Johnson spoke to Bell afterward. Bell told him it was a mix-up.

“I wasn’t even trying to hear all that,” Johnson said. “I didn’t believe nothing he said.”

Earlier, Johnson had spoken to Bell about Detroit – the city, the practice schedule, what to expect.

“That’s what makes it that much more bizarre,” Johnson said. “You do dirt, stuff will catch up to you, come around to you. It’s a situation I ain’t even really worrying about. But it is what it is. He did it behind my back. I’m sure he wouldn’t do it if I was here.”

Johnson called the incident an “all-time classic” but said he would not press charges.

Now, Bell’s version:

Knowing he was going to be released, Bell went to clean out his locker. Former teammate Victor DeGrate, who played at the same high school and college as Bell and had been cut Saturday, asked him to grab his backpack. Bell grabbed two bags by the computer area, thinking they were DeGrate’s.

“I didn’t have a clue,” Bell said. “I wasn’t thinking or nothing at the time. I just grabbed the backpack and grabbed the other bag. It wasn’t in nobody’s locker or nothing like that. It was just sitting right there by the computers. … So I grabbed them and put them in the car.”

Bell said he took the bags to a female friend of DeGrate’s, as DeGrate had asked him to. The woman, reached by phone, was upset and declined to comment. DeGrate did not respond to messages.

Later, the Lions contacted Bell and told him they had the surveillance video of him taking Johnson’s bags.

“I said, ‘If you look on film, I wasn’t in no hurry or nothing. I was just going about my day,’ ” Bell said. “I tried to talk to Rudi yesterday, but he was pretty upset, so I let it go. So now it’s that I’m being a thief. I come to found out that the bags weren’t whose I thought they was. It was just an honest mistake, man.”

Bell said he had nothing of Johnson’s and tried to convince Johnson and the Lions of that.

“I didn’t go in the bags,” Bell said. “I didn’t open up no bags. I don’t have his stuff.

“I asked him. I said, ‘What do I need to do to clear my name?’ I asked the organization, ‘What do I need to do to clear my name? What do I need to do to reimburse Rudi? What can I do to help?’

“But ain’t nobody saying nothing to me. They’re just stuck on the fact that I’m a thief. I’m like, ‘You all know me better than that.’ I ain’t never been in no trouble. You know what I’m saying? I ain’t never, ever, ever been in no situation like this. I’m just trying to clear my name.”

[Draft Dodger]

I must be crazy, because I actually think Bell's story is feasible.

[Raiders Army]

Possible, yes. Probable, no.

The woman, reached by phone, was upset and declined to comment. DeGrate did not respond to messages.

I'd say that if he were innocent, his "buddy" would've stuck up for him....or maybe he's just a Rudi fan.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Possible, yes. Probable, no.


I'd say that if he were innocent, his "buddy" would've stuck up for him....or maybe he's just a Rudi fan.

Or his buddy nicked the stuff and doesn't want to say anything at all?