The Tatum Bell-Rudi Johnson bag-stealing story is bound to peter out eventually. In Detroit, it's already being overshadowed by mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's plea deal and resignation. Bell will get another job eventually, though it wouldn't surprise me at all if he spent the rest of this season on the sidelines. Johnson, too, will get over his missing money and pilfered Perry Ellis boxers.

The Lions still are refusing to show anyone surveillance video of the incident and likely will keep that under wraps unless someone in the Allen Park Police Department gets the novel idea to investigate a theft. There's tragedy in that decision, though, either in the organization's decision not to pursue charges (a player had money and clothes stolen out of their locker room, after all) or the team's failure to come to the defense of an ex-player wrongly accused of something that could affect his ability to get another job (think someone wants a thief in the locker room?). Which one depends on your point of view.

I understand the Lions have heard different versions of the same story from different people, probably don't want to alienate Johnson, and certainly, like most of us who have talked to both sides, can't say definitively what happened.

But as improbable as Bell's story sounds, especially since the bags belonged to the man brought in to replace him, his description of events (where he took the bags from, the time of day, etc.) and the fact the bags had no identifying marks on the outside (according to Johnson) make it believable. One organizational higher-up even said today he thinks there is some truth to Bell's version.

Unless there's more to report in terms of a police investigation or I finally get in touch with Victor DeGrate, the ex-Lion who Bell said he was grabbing the bags for, this will be my final words on Gucci-gate. But if I'm Bell's agent and Bell's story is true, I'd be on the Lions to release the tape and clear my client's name. It won't end all dispute, but if he wasn't rifling through the bag or looking suspiciously around the locker room and darting to his car, it would at least support his version of events.

Just got off the phone with Tatum Bell. He said there was nothing sinister about taking Rudi Johnson's bags out of the locker room Monday, that he was trying to do a friend a favor and had nothing to do with Johnson's missing money, clothes or credit cards. His story:

Bell got a phone call from Lions director of pro personnel Sheldon White after practice Monday saying the Lions had agreed to terms with Johnson and he was going to be released. He returned to the team's Allen Park practice facility to collect his belongings and grabbed two bags by a row of computers in the Lions' locker room that he thought belonged to defensive end Victor DeGrate. Bell and DeGrate attended the same high school (DeSoto in Texas) and college (Oklahoma State), and DeGrate lived with Bell for a period of time this summer.

Bell said DeGrate asked him to pick up his "backpack and grab (his) stuff" after DeGrate was released Saturday. He saw the bags sitting on the floor, by no one's locker, assumed they were DeGrate's and, after texting DeGrate but getting no reply, took them outside to the trunk of his car. Later, he dropped the bags off at a female friend of DeGrate's and returned home.

The Lions called the next day to say they caught Bell on camera taking two bags out of the locker room. Bell said he told the Lions the bags were DeGrate's. When they told him the bags were in fact Johnson's, Bell said he contacted DeGrate, who contacted the female, who returned the bags Tuesday afternoon.

Bell said he didn't know who emptied Johnson's bag of about $200 and the assorted clothing, but it wasn't him.

"I don't want to say it was her," Bell said of the DeGrate's friend. "But it was somebody that was over there at the house. I didn't go in the house. I don't know what was going on over there, I didn't even pay attention. I was doing a friend a favor and at the time I thought it was his bag. Everybody in the league got a Gucci backpack and a Louis backpack and a Zendi backpack. I'm like, 'Dang, I made a mistake. I messed up.'"

Bell said he offered to pay for the missing items, had a short conversation with an angry Johnson, and after hearing from various friends around the league wants to clear his name that's been wrongly soiled.

"Today comes and teams (are) calling, whoever's calling, and the Lions (are) saying I'm a thief and so that's going out to other teams, Tatum Bell's a thief so you don't want him in your locker room," Bell said. "I think it's unfair for the Lions not even to listen to me. They know I'm loyal. All the BS I went through last year with (Mike) Martz and not playing and I still went out there and practiced every day and still was a good teammate, kept everybody's spirits up. I wasn't never dogging nobody, nothing. I didn't burn no bridges last year and for them to throw me under the bus and just believe Rudi because that's who they (signed) ...

"Basically, it just seems like you got released and you're mad, you took the bags. That's a bunch of BS. I hate that it went down like that, but that's how it went down. And that's the whole story."

We should have a story up on our website from earlier today about former Lions running back Tatum Bell allegedly stealing two Gucci bags, cash and credit cards from his replacement Rudi Johnson.

Johnson said he saw surveillance tape of the incident and spoke to Bell Tuesday after he got his bags back with nothing in them. Along with about $200 in cash and the credit cards, Johnson was missing an assortment of boxer shorts, socks and undershirts. The bags were taken from the Lions locker room and returned by a female acquaintance of Bell's.

"If anybody's got some Perry Ellis boxers for sale, you know where they came from," Johnson said.

Johnson said he won't press charges. —"I'll handle it," he said. "I don't need anybody else" — and Lt. Mark Koller of the Allen Park Police Department said there would be no investigation unless Johnson files a complaint.

I've left messages for Bell's agent and tried a cell phone number that I talked to Bell on earlier this summer that's no longer in service. He told the Free Press that it was a misunderstanding and that he was picking bags up for ex-teammate Victor DeGrate, who also was released last week.

You can take that story for what it's worth — no verification yet from DeGrate, who went to the same high school and college as Bell, or his agent — but Johnson said he isn't buying whatever tale Bell told him. He said it was some "real shyster, conniving stuff" and that Bell looked "suspect" on video.

"He tried to make up some excuses," Johnson said. "He tried to blame it on somebody else. Something that didn't make no sense so I wasn't really trying to entertain something that didn't make any sense. But he knows where I stand."