I promised myself yesterday that I wasn’t going to write a single word about Rashard Mendenhall’s Twitter comments on Osama bin Laden, but this has become a much bigger story than I had imagined it would. The Pittsburgh papers all picked up the story this morning and now the national media is talking about it ad nauseum as well. I suppose I can understand why people are talking about it…Mendenhall is a nationally known figure who said something stupid, but I’m disgusted with how upset people are over this and how it has become the big story of the day.
Rashard Mendenhall is a professional football player. He’s not a teacher, politician or pundit. He’s no more qualified to talk about politics than you or I. Why should anybody care what he thinks about bin Laden? Since he is good at carrying a football and running around defenders, does it mean his opinions on terrorism carry more weight and value than anybody elses? I don’t think so.
I’ve read numerous Steeler fans who say that they will no longer root for Mendenhall because of his recent tweets. Unbelievable. I didn’t know political views or amounts of patriotism played a big role in choosing who we root for on the athletic field. I may well be in the minority, but I don’t root for certain athletes because they love the USA or because I think they are nice guys. I don’t find myself cheering for Mike Wallace because he has the same views about women’s right as I do. I don’t wear my Ben Roethlisberger jersey around because he supports the War on Terror with the same fervor as I do. I root for them because I like what they do on the football field.
As long as they aren’t out committing crimes, why should any us of care what athletes do in their spare time? Why should we care what they believe or if they subscribe to any wild conspiracy theories? People like that exist. Some of them even play sports!
Athletes are paid millions of dollars to play a game, not to be elegant public speakers or to speak wisely about a variety of current event topics. The only reason they are popular is because they are good at a game. Expecting professional athletes to carry themselves any certain way off the field is nonsense.
In fact, I’d argue that the majority of professional athletes are douchebags. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody. These are the same jocks and star athletes that probably made your life a living hell in high school. Most of them don’t grow up. The Troy Polamalu’s and Ryan Clark’s are the exception, not the rule.
Plenty of guys in the Steelers locker room are bad dudes. Several have had run-ins with the law for assault. They aren’t choir boys and they aren’t paid to be.
What Rashard Mendenhall said was crazy and disrespectful. By no means do I agree with any of the things he said. But, as a fan, I don’t care one bit what he thinks about anything not related to the Steelers. He’s just some guy I cheer for when he plays football. His views don’t represent my own or any other Steelers fans. He has the right to say and believe anything he pleases, as far-reaching and ludicrous as it might be.
As I mentioned earlier, there are hundreds of NFL players who have done far, far worse than send out a few highly opinionated tweets. Some of them even wear the black and gold. People are willing to roll the eyes and shrug off assault and drug charges, but it’s a national story when somebody tweets something that upsets a lot of people?? Give me a break.
The whole premise of fining or outcasting a guy for tweeting his opinions on a current event makes no sense. It doesn’t matter how unpopular his comments were.
If you want to get on a high horse and run Mendenhall out of town for believing 9/11 was an inside job then you watch and love sports for totally different reasons than I do.
