Four colleges and a wheelbarrow: Browns undrafted rookie D'Anthony Bell's journey rewarded

BEREA — In his parents’ backyard in Covington, Georgia, sits a wheelbarrow D’Anthony Bell said he will keep forever.

To the 25-year-old Browns rookie safety, it will serve as a reminder of his improbable journey. It included stops at four colleges and taking a season off from football in 2017 because he was without a scholarship and couldn’t afford tuition.

That year, Bell stayed at home and helped his dad, Anthony.

"He was working in a lot of different places and doing a lot of construction for a lot of people," Bell said. "I was taking out the heavy rocks and carrying them. Just doing whatever he asked me to do."

After undrafted free agent Bell learned Tuesday from General Manager Andrew Berry that he had survived final cuts, Bell didn’t mind reflecting on the dusty, sometimes dark days.

“We've still got the same wheelbarrow right now in my backyard that I used,” he said. “So it's kind of like momentum now. It's like, ‘Dang, you ain't doing construction no more.’

“Very proud. All my thanks is to God. I just stayed down, stayed on my journey, and stayed with the path. Anytime there was dark moments, I felt like God showed me a little bit of light and I just always kept it and kept pushing and kept going.”

Bell, who played last season at the University of West Florida, became the first player from that Division II school to make an NFL 53-man roster. UWF began playing football in 2016.

“Yeah, first one in high school, and the first one from my college, so it's a blessing,” Bell said. “I feel like God took me through this journey because he knew I could prevail and I could make it.”

Bell said he hadn’t slept much, that he and his mother were up until 1 or 2 a.m. praying over the phone ahead of Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline for final roster cuts. Bell was sitting at his locker when he saw Berry had called.

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“My reaction was, ‘Let’s keep going. Make it true. I made it here, but that’s not the end goal. To keep going and help this team get wins, let’s be part of the team and make plays,’” Bell said.

“For me and my family, we always believed in me. I believed that I had a shot from the get-go. I believed in my talent and my preparation as a player. I felt like I had a good chance, and clearly I did, I guess.”

Bell’s road from Alcovy High School to the Browns was rocky as well.

In 2015, he was a redshirt freshman at Albany State University in Albany, Georgia. In 2016, he played for Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge. After his year off, he landed at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas, in 2018. He transferred to West Florida in January 2019. The 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While at Butler, Bell said he had offers from Division I schools, naming Georgia and LSU, but his grades weren’t good enough and he opted for West Florida.

There may have been a moment of divine intervention that brought Bell to Cleveland. Browns pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach Jeff Howard served as defensive coordinator for the West team at the 2022 East-West Shrine Bowl, where Bell was a late addition.

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“We ended up having a guy get hurt and he actually came in like a day late,” Howard said on Aug. 6. “He really stood out to me in his ability to come in and learn the system … and I kinda started to see who he was.

“Something that really stands out to me with D’Anthony is how important football is to him. If you look back on his story, he’s had to travel a lot of different places, go to a lot of different schools. When I see that scouting a guy — everybody’s going to tell you how important football is to them — but when you have a little bit of that story in you, I think it really tells that.”

Howard said he told the Browns personnel department about Bell and hoped they would sign him if he went undrafted.

“It’s a unique story. He’s earned it, for sure,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said of Bell making the team. “He’s taken a different path than most.”

Bouncing around was “a hard journey, for sure,” Bell said.

“But it taught me the importance of football. It taught me the importance of the people that were in my corner and the people that believed in me,” he said. “I think I had to go through that journey to learn that I had to go through college and I had to get those grades to be where I’m at.

“I think it made me a way better man than I was back then. If I was younger and had gotten the opportunity, I probably would have messed it up.”

Bell took advantage of his opportunity with the Browns, proving he could make big plays just as he had in college. In three preseason games, he recorded seven tackles (one for a loss) and forced two fumbles.

“When I started making plays it was like, ‘Oh, OK. I can really do this; I can actually do this,’” Bell said.

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Bell said part of that nose for the ball came from playing offense much of his life.

“In high school I played quarterback, running back and receiver,” he said. “Then went to Albany State to play receiver and then after that I transitioned to DB.

“I went to Iowa Central and they were like, 'We need a safety.' I was like, ‘I'm that guy, whatever you need, we can do it.’ I've always been that team player.”

Bell hadn’t thought about what he’ll do with his first game check, saying he’ll probably take his family out for a nice steak dinner. He also has two brothers and a sister.

But he does realize he can be an inspiration to others, especially in his hometown.

“I think I'm the first person from my high school to even make it to this level,” he said. “So when I talk to those kids and let them know that even though your journey may be hard, you can still [come] out on the good end if you keep on pushing, trusting yourself and believing.”

Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Browns undrafted rookie D'Anthony Bell makes roster