The first rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club. The second rule-you don't talk about fight club. But we ain't talking about fight club or sales, so neither of those things are relevant.
And that being said, I'm not really sure why you posted this as a response to my post. You quoted my comments about the impact Bell's actions could have on the use of the franchise tag, then proceeded to say "this just sounds dumb to me," and discuss the impact this decision was having on Bell's wallet almost exclusively, with just a throwaway comment at the end about the NFLPA. Doesn't make sense to say something sounds dumb, then argue a completely different point to back that up.
If you want to discuss Bell's personal financial information, you're likely right-this decision cost him money. But, we can't be 100% certain about that unless we know what, EXACTLY, Pitt actually offered him. There are multiple different reports of what they offered, what the real guarantees were, etc. We would also need to know what deal he eventually gets from another team. You also have to consider the chance of sustaining an injury if he had played on the franchise tag this year and the impact that would have had on a long-term deal next year (Earl Thomas says hi).
But, again, that wasn't the point of my post. The point was that IF the situation plays out the way that report suggests, Bell's actions strengthens the NFLPA, and other NFL players in their future dealings with teams with regards to use of the franchise tags. Bell establishing the precedent that a player doesn't have to play under a 2nd tag and still advance to the 3rd tag (& QB tag rate) will make the tag a much less valuable tool/weapon for teams to utilize. Players will know, and teams will know that player will know, that teams will get 1 tag & 1 chance to exclusively work out a long-term deal. If the team decides to tag a player a 2nd time, they run the risk of the player holding their salary cap hostage (as Bell did with the Steelers), not reporting (saving a year of abuse on their body), and still moving up to either a huge payday the next year or becoming a FA. The players/NFLPA got a big win here (with the exception of QBs, but their contracts are already so ahead of everyone else's, anyway).
So, if this report is accurate-Bell doesn't report, he graduates to the QB tag rate anyway & is allowed to become a FA because Pitt won't want to play that rate; then he has done something for the NFLPA that they couldn't do themselves during negotiations. While not getting rid of the franchise tag, he has returned it to what it was (purportedly) supposed to be anyway: a way for teams to be able to keep their franchise players. He has greatly weakened its' availability as a weapon for teams to control players during the prime of their careers without making long-term commitments to those players. That was the point of my previous post.