to a player who plays the short-shelf-life position of NFL tailback Ulysees Gilbert Pittsburgh Steelers Jersey , the most important factor continues to be fully guaranteed money.Multiple reports emerging today peg the full guarantee at only $25 million, with total cash flow through two years of $26 million.The cash flow through the first two years trails the $33 million that reportedly would have been paid to Bell under the offer from the Steelers that he rejected last year. That’s prompting many to say the Steelers gave Bell a “better offer.” But here’s the thing to remember: That offer carried only $20 million in fully-guaranteed payments.With $14.54 million fully guaranteed under his franchise tender in 2018, would it have made sense to sign a long-term deal that consisted of only $5.46 million more in fully-guaranteed pay? Bell decided that it wouldn’t have.The bigger, and thornier, question is whether it made sense to completely forego the $14.54 million for the fully-guaranteed payment he later received as an unrestricted free agent. That’s a much hotter button, with plenty of people insisting that he should have taken the $14.54 million and rolled the dice on making big money this year and others arguing that it made far more sense to preserve and protect the much larger payday by giving up a great-but-not-spectacular salary for what could have been a full season of rental-car type abuse by a team that knew Bell wasn’t coming back.Clouding the issue of whether Bell should have given up $14.54 million last year to get $25 million this year is the fact that, overall, the contract he eventually signed isn’t nearly as good as it could have or should have been. For Bell to hit the open market and to fail to become the highest-paid running back in the NFL is, without question, a major disappointment. Whether it happened because Bell sat out all of last year or because only one team was seriously interested in Bell or because Bell’s agent misread the market or overplayed the hand or because teams were not-so-subtly retaliating against Bell for bucking the system or because the Todd Gurley knee situation has caused teams to err on the side of relying on younger, cheaper, and healthier options, Bell’s foray into free agency ended up being a bust.In unrestricted free agency Ulysees Gilbert Jersey 2019 , good players get great contracts. Great players should get spectacular deals. The failure of Bell, a clearly great player, to get a spectacular deal represents a colossal failure.But this doesn’t mean Bell made the wrong decision by avoiding $14.54 million and the physical pounding that may have gone along with it. He’s still getting $25 million no matter what happens moving forward. But he has no guarantees beyond the $26 million he’ll make over the first two years, including no injury guarantees into 2021 or 2020. He also has essentially promised not to hold out for more by tying $3 million in each of the final two years of the deal to reporting to training camp on time.Again, he should have done better. But the presence of $25 million in full guarantees still makes it possible to argue persuasively that it made sense both to pass on $20 million in full guarantees on a long-term deal and to refuse to take $14.54 million for a final season with the Steelers that could have resulted in Bell being beaten to a pulp. I remember when Alan Faneca was drafted out of LSU. Just months after another great year for the Steelers in 1997, Faneca was a now familiar late first-round pick (26th, overall) in the 1998 NFL Draft. There usually isn’t a whole lot to get excited about when it comes to late first-round picks, especially when your team is a perennial Super Bowl contender, and especially when the pick is a guard. Unbeknownst to me and thousands of other Steelers fans at that time, Pittsburgh’s run as a perennial contender in the 1990s had already come to an end months prior in a 24-21 loss to the Broncos in the AFC Championship game at Three Rivers Stadium. But while the next few years would be tough and playoff-less, the Steelers were building (or rebuilding) a foundation for their next Super Bowl run—one that would ultimately lead to the franchise’s first championship in 26 years.Youngsters named Hines Ward, Joey Porter, Marvel Smith Cheap Ulysees Gilbert Jersey , Aaron Smith and Casey Hampton were some of the new building blocks, players who would make the Steelers relevant again by the turn of the century. Faneca was the first building block. Faneca, who was up for Hall of Fame induction on Saturday—his fourth year of eligibility since retiring following the 2010 season—missed out yet again. I knowthis because cries of “bullbleep!” filled my Twitter feed immediately after the results of the voting were announced. Why didn’t Faneca make it this year? Were there players more deserving? Were there offensive linemen more deserving? (Kevin Mawae made it in.) Too many Steelers already in Canton, as it is? All the reasons seem arbitrary if a player is truly a Hall of Famer. Obviously, Faneca had a Hall of Fame career. Nine-straight Pro Bowls and being named a First Team All-Pro six times? Those are Canton credentials. As I’ve said many times before, either a player is a Hall of Famer or he’s not. If he is, it seems silly to make him wait. But, then again, it would probably be silly to see dozens of players get in all at once. Faneca will get in. It’s just a matter of time at this point, and whether his induction happens in 2020, 2021 or 2022, fortunately for him, he’ll still be young and healthy and able to enjoy it for many Justin Layne Jersey 2019 , many years. I wish I was an offensive line expert and could break down technical reasons why Faneca was the best guard of his era. I can’t do that--I just know that he was.What I remember about Faneca was his consistency and athleticism. I remember the many times people I watched games with laughing with delight as they said, “Look at Faneca running all the way down the field!” This was typical of many long running plays involving Jerome Bettis, Willie Parker, etc. When I think of Faneca, I remember the time he knelt on the turf of the New Orleans Superdome as trainers tried to stop the blood that was gushing from his forehead. I remember his flippant remarks when reporters asked him if he was excited to have rookie Ben Roethlisberger start his very first game at quarterback early in the 2004 season. I remember the 2005 season and attending the weekly taping of the Joey Porter Show late in the year right as the team began its magical run to Super Bowl XL (the most fun I’ve ever had as a sports fan took place over the course of those two months). Peezy and his co-host, Chris Hope, swapped many stories during these tapings. One that stood out was about Faneca, and how they knew when he and the rest of the offense were feeling it. “Get us the ball back, they can’t stop us!” Faneca was known to say as he came off the field in those days. “If Big Red is telling us we have to get the ball back, I guess we have to get the ball back,” was the general sentiment of the defense, according to Porter and Hope. I remember the usually intense and serious Faneca pumping his fist in joy on the sideline in the final moments of the AFC title game against the Broncos when it was certain that the Steelers would be making their first trip to the Super Bowl in a decade. Speaking of Porter, one of my favorite sports images of all-time is from the final moments of Super Bowl XL https://www.thesteelerslockerroom.com/authentic-juju-smith-schuster-jersey , when he and Faneca, two players that couldn’t have seemed more opposite, jumped into each other’s arms to celebrate that One For The Thumb.But, most of all, when I think of Faneca, I remember the magnificent block he threw early in the second half of Super Bowl XL that helped spring Fast Willie Parker on a 75-yard touchdown run.Again, Faneca will have his day at Canton, and when his likeness is finally immortalized there, it will join many other Steeler greats—including centers Mike Webster and Dermontti Dawson (Dawson didn’t get inducted into the HOF until 2012 which kind of seems absurd since he was regarded as the greatest center of his time—sound familiar)?But nomatter when Faneca does get enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it won’t change the memories, and it won't change what we have known all along—he’s one of the best guards to have ever played in the National Football League.