Sorry to break up my draft analysis, but this is a subject that I just had to tall about. Like most people that have heard Steelers’ running back Rashard Mendenhall’s comments about Osama bin Laden and 9/11, I was utterly shocked to hear someone speak of bin Laden in almost a positive light. If you have not heard all of Mendenhall’s comments, check out the article on NFL.com (http://tinyurl.com/6x3q5yh). He starts off with a decent point saying that it is a little disturbing how excited everyone in the US was about the murder of a single individual. I personally do not have a problem with people getting joy out of seeing a mass murderer finally receive the punishment that he has avoided for the past ten years, but I can understand Mendenhall’s point. However, he goes on to claim that we will never know what happened on 9/11 and that he does not believe a plane could bring down a skyscraper. Mendenhall is a football player, not a scientist and he has no business speaking about what is physically possible or not. I know people that saw with their own two eyes those planes hit the World Trade Towers. There are videos from numerous sources of the planes hitting the buildings. How much more evidence does this guy need?
This does not end the insanity of Mendenhall’s rantings. He goes on to say that we cannot judge bin Laden because we have not heard him speak before and that there is no evidence that he was even linked to 9/11 except for the fact that our government told us so. Maybe Mendenhall has not heard bin Laden speak before, but most of America has. Bin Laden has publicly released videos of him taking full credit for 9/11 attacks as well as other terrorist plots that are responsible for the deaths of hundreds more people. There is no doubt that he is a mass murderer and that the world is a much better place without him. Mendenhall’s comments show a degree of ignorance that is hard to comprehend as well as a complete lack of tact when speaking about an event that immediately took the lives of thousands of American citizens and had a devastating effect on the lives of everyone close to those individuals.
What is even worse is the fact that Mendenhall seems to refuse to take back his words, which is unforgivable. He even claims that, “There is not an ignorant bone in my body.” Ignorance about one’s own ignorance is the worst type of idiocy. I guess footballs fans should have seen something like this coming when Mendenhall backed up Adrian Peterson’s comment that the NFL is like “modern-day slavery.” Yes, I really see the comparison between the most shameful time in America’s history when we treated a entire race like property and a professional sport in which players get paid millions of dollars to play a game. Mendenhall is clearly completely oblivious to what true suffering really means, and if he thinks the NFL is so bad, he should just quit.
If I were Art Rooney, who is part of Obama’s staff as the Ambassador to Ireland, I would cut ties with Mendenhall if he refuses to give a full hearted apology and legitimately show remorse for his unfounded and insensitive comments. Not only is it shameful to the Steelers’ organization and to him personally, but also how could Mendenhall’s teammates ever respect him again? I am sure there are at least a few players on the Steelers who were affected by 9/11 in one way or another. These comments could have a devastating impact on the chemistry in the Steelers’ locker room that has already had to deal with Ben Roethlisberger’s rape charges. Mendenhall is a great player, but if his team is not behind him or his lineman are not as motivated to block for him, it could be the difference between a disappointing season and another Super Bowl victory.
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