Jets head coach Adam Gase was blunt in his response to Le'Veon Bell's bowling escapade late Saturday night, saying "I would say so" when asked if it was a bad optic for the team.
Bell would disagree.
The star running back spoke to reporters on Tuesday, where Bell revealed he and Gase had a conversation about the questionable decision.
"Yeah, me and coach Gase talked about it," Bell said. "He said a certain perspective is going to look a certain way. That's the only thing why I wish I wasn't seen doing it. I don't feel bad about what I did. I didn't break any rules and I wasn't a distraction until now."
Bell was deemed out by doctors on Saturday for Sunday's contest against the Dolphins, as he was battling the flu -- something he began feeling on Tuesday. He thinks practicing on Wednesday "kinda set me back," and believes if he didn't practice that day, he would've been perfectly fine for Sunday.
Instead, Bell found himself trying to persuade doctors to clear him for the game, but they said he was still contagious and shouldn't be able to suit up.
"Tried to talk my way into it, didn't work," Bell explained. "They said I had lost 8-9 pounds, I wasn't eating. They weren't sure about my energy and my hydration and things like that, so they held me out of the game. But they did advise me to get out of the house and move a little bit. I had a lot of family and friends there because they were expecting me to play.
"I felt better, so we went out bowling [and] had fun."
And Bell wasn't just surprised about the backlash he received. It was something that happened while he was bowling.
"The bigger surprise: I roll a 251 off the flu," he said. "That's the bigger surprise. Career high."
He wasn't on the sideline Sunday, but Bell was in his mom's suite to watch his team at MetLife Stadium. Bell admitted "it sucked obviously," but said he noticed mistakes being made. However, he'll definitely take the team's fifth win of the season.
Now it's a short week with the Ravens -- arguably the best team in the NFL -- on the schedule for Thursday night. Bell says he was ramping up his running regimen Tuesday to make sure he has stamina by kickoff. But he's ready to take on the next challenge, and put this off-the-field story behind him.
"Right now, I feel good," Bell said. "I want to go out there and make enough plays for my team."