David Bell, who retired from NFL after parts of three seasons, was special competitor, athlete during his time at Warren Central
It was a little more than a decade ago when I first saw David Bell.
I was at Warren Central football practice prior to the 2015 season, talking with then-coach Jayson West (who is now at Franklin Central). We were walking on the field when West pointed out a freshman receiver. I can’t claim to remember exactly what West said but something to the effect of, “He’s going to be special.”
And then, almost on cue, Bell made a tough catch and West gave me a look like “Told ya.”
Over the next four years, I witnessed plenty of “Told ya” moments from David Bell, who announced his retirement from the NFL on Tuesday after parts of three seasons with the Cleveland Browns. The 2022 third-round pick out of Purdue caught 41 passes for 408 yards and three TDs during his brief NFL career.
In a social media post, Bell shared that he was “blindsided by an off-field injury that was beyond my control, which put my football future in jeopardy. After consulting with medical experts and praying, I accept that continuing to play football would literally risk life and limb. Although it is the last thing I would otherwise want to do, with a heavy heart I am announcing my retirement.”
Thank You Cleveland 🤞🏾🤎 pic.twitter.com/0Lp084Mvik
— David Bell (@DB3LL) October 14, 2025
Bell, 24, was placed on the non-football injury list to open training camp. He suffered a season-ending hip injury early in the 2024 season.
It would have to be a dire situation to take Bell out of sports. No one loved the competition more than Bell and no one seemed to rise to the occasion like he could. He was the ultimate winner at Warren Central, redefining the “Pride of the Eastside” motto of the school.
“I’ve never met somebody who didn’t like or respect David,” Chad Spann, one of his coaches at Warren Central, told me in 2022. “He’s a guy that has known for a long time that he’s special and has never wanted to make anyone else feel like he’s special. He’s never been too big or too prideful to speak to anybody. People like him because he’s a normal guy. He’s a normal guy from the Eastside.”
Bell’s football talent was obvious. He was not necessarily a speed burner, but his hand-eye coordination was off the charts and he was plenty fast enough. If you threw a ball in Bell’s neighborhood, it was a guaranteed catch. In four high school seasons, Bell made 239 receptions for 4,402 yards and 55 touchdowns against the top competition in the state.
But for all of Bell’s numbers and accomplishments (he would go on to be a two-time first-team All-Big Ten Conference selection at Purdue and a consensus All-American in 2021), it was his performances in the clutch that stood out the most.
Warren Central, ranked No. 1 his senior year in 2018, was pushed to the limit by No. 4 North Central on a freezing night in front of a huge crowd during a 6A regional game. Warren Central was trailing by three points in the middle of the fourth quarter. Bell lined up to return a North Central punt, which was supposed to go out of bounds. Instead, it went right down the middle of the field to Bell, who returned it 63 yards for a touchdown to propel Warren Central to a 42-32 win.
Bell injured his ankle the next week against Center Grove in the semistate but helped Warren Central win that game and the next week against Carmel for the 6A state title, which remains the most recent championship in the Warriors’ storied football history.
And there was, of course, the New Albany game. Basketball, not football. His mother, Kareem Butler, could not even watch. His grandfather, Greg Butler Sr., was under the bleachers at Seymour as a sellout crowd of more than 8,000 fans rumbled. But when Bell hit the bank shot to beat Romeo Langford’s New Albany team in the Class 4A semistate on March 17, 2018, you could hear it all the way up Interstate 65 to the Far Eastside.
With 4.6 seconds remaining, Bell took the ball from one end to the other and banked in a running one-hander to give Warren Central a 64-62 win and a moment that will never be forgotten in Indiana high school basketball lore.
“It felt like super slow motion,” Bell said. “I just thought, ‘There’s no way I’m missing this.’ I knew I had to put it off the backboard. Coach (Criss) Beyers instilled that in us the 2015-16 season. He would make us run every time we missed those floaters and didn’t use the backboard.”
Warren Central won the state title with an undefeated 32-0 record. Almost every game was close. Bell and teammates Dean Tate, Antwaan Cushingberry, Jesse Bingham, Jakobie Robinson, Joe Rush and Jaylen Moore found a way to win them all.
Bell never let me forget it, either. If I picked against Warren Central, or even picked them to win by a score he thought was too close, I heard about it. When Warren Central’s basketball team beat Ben Davis in the regional at Southport, 48-46 in overtime in 2018, I tweeted something between games about how Terre Haute South would give Warren Central a tough game that night.
With about 30 seconds left in Warren Central’s 35-point win that night over Terre Haute South, I heard someone calling my name over and over. I looked over to the Warren Central bench to see Bell smiling and pointing at the scoreboard.
Yes, thank you David. Seriously, thank you.
“I’m so proud of what I’ve accomplished and intend to apply football’s teachings to my next chapter, and to help make the world a better place,” Bell wrote Tuesday.
There is another great chapter ahead for David Bell, I’m sure of it. Probably several. At age 24, there is so much more left for him to accomplish. Just in a different way.
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter. And be sure to subscribe to our new IndyStarTV: Preps YouTube channel.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Warren Central and Purdue star David Bell retires from NFL
Category: General Sports
