Karl Malone, aka the Mailman, delivered when it came to Demetrees Bell

After the Eagles released Demetrees Bell last week I was doing a little background research for a piece I was penning on the topic.

Naturally, I ended up on Bell’s Wikipedia page, as everyone knows solid, reliable research starts with Wikipedia.

OK, well that might not be true, but the site can certainly be useful to find some background basics, and Bell’s was bursting with interesting information.

First of all “Demetress” didn’t know how to spell his name correctly until… 2012!?!

Yes, you read that correctly. It wasn’t until the ripe age of 28 years old that Bell learned that his first name was actually spelled ‘Deemetrees,’ rather than the ‘Demetrius’ he had been using. The fact that Demetrees went on that long spelling his name in a manner that varied from that on his birth certificate without knowing is actually amazing to me.

Wouldn’t his mother see it at some point throughout his childhood and correct him; on a test, homework, anywhere of the myriad of places that a kid is required to write his or her name?

My next question, which Wikipedia does not address, is how did he finally realize that he had been spelling it incorrectly? Randomly, in the middle of his twenty-eighth year of life he realized? Did his mother finally notice and inform her son that he had not been spelling his name in the way which she initially intended? I wonder.

It is safe to assume that it wasn’t his father who broke the news to him, as Wikipedia reports that the two don’t have much of a relationship. The ‘pedia page also explains that Bell’s father is NBA great Karl Malone, aka the Mail Man. From the article:

“Karl Malone has never offered public confirmation that he is the father of Demetress Bell. However, laboratory blood tests prepared for the Bell family's 1986 paternity lawsuit against Malone reportedly pointed to an over 99 percent probability that Bell's father was either Malone or a brother of Malone.”

So, Bell’s father is either Karl Malone or one of his brothers; apparently those details don’t matter much.

Bell won’t be having an impact for the Eagles this season, and he remains a free agent at this point. But, even if he doesn’t make many headlines this season, he already has one of the most interesting and entertaining Wikipedia pages around.

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