Kahlil Edward Bell (born December 10, 1986) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. Bell was signed by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2009. He was also played for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

and

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

Professional career

Minnesota Vikings

Bell was signed by the

as an

on April 27, 2009. He was waived on August 16, 2009.

Chicago Bears

Bell was signed to the

practice squad In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

on September 16, 2009. He was promoted from the practice squad to the active roster on November 20, 2009, to replace an injured

Garrett Wolfe Garrett Wolfe (born August 17, 1984) is a former American football running back. He was drafted by the Bears in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played his college football at Northern Illinois. Early years A Chicago native, Wolfe atte ...

. His first NFL carry on November 22, 2009 was a 72-yard run against the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

on ''

NBC Sunday Night Football ''NBC Sunday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''SNF'') is an American weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC and Peacock in the United States. It began airing on August 6, 2006, with the Pro Football Hall of Fa ...

''. This was an NFL record for longest first carry of a career at the time. Jalen Richard of the Oakland Raiders first ever NFL carry, on September 11, 2016, against the New Orleans Saints, was a 75-yard Touchdown run, and is the current record. His first NFL touchdown catch was a 25-yard reception against the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

on December 18, 2011. Kahlil Bell 22 in warmups Dec 2013 cropped

In 2011, after an injury to Matt Forté and Marion Barber, Bell became the starting running back for the Week 16 and 17 games against the

and

after beating out undrafted rookie

Armando Allen Armando Allen, Jr. (born April 30, 1989) is a former American football running back. He played professionally for two seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Chicago Bears. He was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted ...

. Bell also played in the Bears loss against the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

. Bell and backup quarterback

Josh McCown Joshua Treadwell McCown (born July 4, 1979) is an American football quarterback who is a free agent. He attended Jacksonville High School in Jacksonville, Texas, where he was named the East Texas Player of the Year and earned All-State honorabl ...

both generated more than 400 yards in the Packers game. Bell would record 121 on 23 attempts, and caught 4 passes for 38 yards. In 2012, Bell became an unrestricted free agent, and the Bears extended a qualifying offer to him, which he accepted on April 14, 2012. The contract was worth one-year and $1.26 million. He was waived on August 23, 2012 when he refused to have his contract reduced to $700,000. He was re-signed by the Bears on September 15, 2012 after starting running back

Matt Forte Matthew Garrett Forte (born December 10, 1985) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Tulane Green Wave and was drafted ...

went down with an injury. Bell was later waived on October 15.

New York Jets

Bell was signed by the

on November 13, 2012 following injuries to running backs

Bilal Powell Bilal Matan Powell (born October 27, 1988) is a former American football running back. He played college football at Louisville. Drafted by the New York Jets in the fourth round of the 2011 NFL Draft, Powell played his entire professional career ...

and

Joe McKnight Joseph Nathan McKnight Jr. (April 16, 1988 – December 1, 2016) was an American football running back and return specialist who played in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). He attended the University of Sout ...

. He was waived on December 11, 2012.

Second stint with the Chicago Bears

On December 18, 2012, Bell was brought back by the Bears after

Michael Bush Michael Warren Bush, Jr. (born June 16, 1984) is a former American football running back. He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the fourth round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at Louisville. In addition to the Raiders, B ...

was placed on injured reserve.

Second stint with the New York Jets

On August 11, 2013, Bell was signed by the

after running back

John Griffin John Griffin may refer to: Lawyers *John Griffin (judge) (1774/1779 – after 1823), American jurist and member of the Michigan Territorial Supreme Court, 1806–1823 *John Bowes Griffin (1903–1992), British lawyer, Chief Justice of Uganda and f ...

was waived due to a broken leg. He was released on September 1, 2013.

Green Bay Packers

On December 2, 2013, Bell was signed by the

. He was not re-signed at the end of the season, making him a free agent.

Professional wrestling career

Bell participated in

season 6 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

of ''

WWE Tough Enough ''WWE Tough Enough'' was an American professional wrestling reality competition series that was produced by WWE, wherein participants undergo professional wrestling training and compete for a contract with WWE. There were two winners per season ...

''. Although he initially was part of the 13 official participants, he didn't pass the medical evaluations and was eliminated from the contest.

Personal life

Born in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...

and raised in

San Anselmo, California San Anselmo () is an List of cities in California, incorporated town in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. San Anselmo is located west of San Rafael, California, San Rafael, at an elevation of 46 feet (14 m). It ...

, Bell is of Samoan and

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

descent. After football, Bell returned to UCLA, and completed his degree in History, which he earned in spring 2017.

References

External links

Chicago Bears bio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Kahlil 1986 births Living people American sportspeople of Samoan descent People from San Anselmo, California Sportspeople from Santa Rosa, California Players of American football from California American football running backs UCLA Bruins football players Minnesota Vikings players Chicago Bears players New York Jets players Green Bay Packers players Tough Enough contestants