THE CANADIAN PRESS
Ricky Bell, a six-year CFL veteran who won a Grey Cup with Calgary, has died. He was 36.
There was no immediate word on cause of death, which occurred Feb. 17. His girlfriend Tanisha Means and mother Florence Bell declined comment when reached in South Carolina, and the Calgary Stampeders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who both issued releases Friday marking the death, said they did not know.
Bell, a defensive back, joined the CFL in 2001 after three seasons in the NFL with Jacksonville and Chicago.
He also spent one season in NFL Europe and another in the XFL before joining the CFL.
Bell played for Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Montreal before leaving the league in 2007. His career ended in 2008 with the Arena Football League’s Georgia Force.
B.C. Lions coach Wally Buono, who coached Bell in Calgary, seemed shaken when talking about the player’s death.
“I’m always disrupted and saddened when I hear that,” Buono said Friday in Vancouver. “These are young men that you would never think would be passing away before you are. I’m a lot older than Ricky.
“For his family it’s a tragedy. For the CFL you have to give thought of that. He was a competitor. He was a good guy. He was a good football player and helped us win a Grey Cup.”
In his first year in the CFL, Bell recorded 45 tackles, one special-teams tackle, two sacks and one interception with the Stampeders en route to winning the title.
“The Alouettes family is saddened to hear the news of the passing of Ricky Bell. We send our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and teammates,” said General Manager Jim Popp. “Ricky was a fierce competitor and ways always up for the challenges. His two seasons with the Alouettes resulted with two Divisional Championship games and a Grey Cup Appearance.”
“It is always sad anytime you lose somebody at such a young age,” said Winning Blue Bombers President Jim Bell. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this time.”
Florence Bell said her son always wanted to be a football player and insisted when he was a boy on wearing the number 42 because his father was born in 1942.
“He always wanted to play football,” she said. “I remember my brother saying, ‘Rick, you know the chances of you playing professional ball are one in a million?’
“And he looked at my brother and said, ‘Well uncle, I’m going to be that man. I’m going to be that one.”’
Bell captained the football team at North Carolina State University before leaving to play professionally.
Florence Bell said her son was happy to get the chance to play in Canada after leaving the NFL.
“He said it was so different, you know? He just told me that the field was wider. But he loved Canada and when the opportunity came he said: ‘Mom, they called me to come play and I think I’m going to (go).”’
After Bell retired from football, he returned to South Carolina where he went into real estate. Bell had a daughter, Nyla, two years ago and returned to school where he earned a psychology diploma in December. Florence Bell said the diploma arrived Thursday.
“He loved the sport,” she said. “He loved to talk to young men and tell them: ‘Go to school and study because football isn’t going to last all the time so you can have something to go back on.”‘
