Around 1:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Alabama wide receiver Kenny Bell was adding a name to his title: former.

Bell, a father of two, thought it best for his life to announce his retirement from college football to focus on his children: an intention he made very clear through his Twitter account.

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The decision, that seemingly came out of nowhere, was met with support by hundreds if not thousands on Twitter, including former and current teammates.

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What the decision was not, however, was unanimous. Bell expressed a different sentiment in more than one meeting with head coach Nick Saban, as if to suggest his time with the Crimson Tide has not ended just yet.

“Kenny Bell I gave a personal day to today,” Saban said. “He should be back to practice tomorrow. Kenny’s a fifth-year senior. He’s done a great job in this program. He’s played a lot of good football for us. He’s made a lot of big plays. He’s been a good teammate to a lot of guys on the team and certainly somebody that I have a tremendous amount of respect for as a competitor.

“Sometimes we have personal things that we need to get ironed out, and he had a day today to do that. There’s really nothing else to talk about when it comes to that.”

Saban went on to discuss the process of the matter a bit further, how things escalated to this point.

“Well, he came and we had a discussion,” Saban said. “And there was some personal things that he needed to iron out. And I think he talked to his family about it. I talked to his mom. We talked again today.

“So, you know, I want Kenny to be happy. I would love him to be a part of the team. If he can be happy doing that, relative to any other personal responsibilities that he has.”

The saga (for now) ended around 8:30 p.m. the next night, just a few hours later, when Bell tweeted that he is returning to the team.

Bell’s best friend on the team, quarterback AJ McCarron, was one of several to voice excitement for Bell’s return.