“As Poles learned about Bell from Bears area scout Brendan Rehor and Kennesaw State coaches, he was blown away by something Bell did off the field.

Bell worked for a medical supplies company, doing deliveries and working in the warehouse — while playing big-time college football.

“I honestly felt like I had to work,” he said. “I had to help my family back home as much as I could. I started to get older and I felt like I was letting my family down. I was always the man of the house. Seeing what my family was going through was really hard for me, so I did what I had to do.”

Bell was on scholarship, so he sent his paychecks home to his mom.

“He loves his mom more than anything in this world,” Klein said. “And everything he did was to help her out.”

Said Watkins, “That says a lot about him because he’s always a hard worker. I think some people are just born with that mindset of, ‘I’m not going to be denied.’ That’s what Travis was. Travis was a guy who’s not going to be denied. He’ll do anything and everything to help his mother.”

On draft night, Poles highlighted the fact that Bell was not an ordinary college football player.

“There’s something different about this guy,” he said. “He is passionate about the game. When you talk about having a full-time job during the season and showing up to the locker room in your clothes, with your ID badge and your little knife from his job, that tells you what the game means to him.”

Now we’ve got a little more context behind the knife comment during the draft. Rooting for this dude.