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Bengals' Bell to retire
Tuesday, May 8, 2012    
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former Miami Redhawk

Jacob Bell has retired, according to Yahoo! Sports.

For many of you, I'm sure your first response is: Who?

Bell was a backup guard for the Cincinnati Bengals. Well, sort of. Bell signed a one-year, $890,000 deal (included $65,000 signing bonus) with the Bengals as a free agent on April 6. So, he was on the team for 32 days. I'm not sure that really qualifies you for being an ex-Bengal.

Some suggested that Bell decided to retire after the Bengals drafted Kevin Zeitler in the first round. But Bell had to know the Bengals were going to draft a guard early when he joined the team. I even called him "a safety net" when he signed with the Bengals.

Bell, though, was a starter for 100 of his 109 career NFL games with the Titans and Rams and possibly wasn't happy with becoming a backup. It's still stunning to think of someone turning down $890,000 because they couldn't handle a demotion.