Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall is back in the social media news again for a remark on Twitter that he removed shortly after making it on Friday. In response to criticism about his fumbling, Mendenhall responded to the tweet with a tweet of his own saying, “For you who want to talk about fumbles. I have #moremoneythanyou. I have been with #morewomenthanyou. #WHYUMAD?/// SMH”
Mendenhall removed the tweet shortly after making it, but not before it was re-tweeted by a few of his followers. Mendenhall clearly is still learning that social media is like having an open mic in front of you and this is not the first time he has deleted a tweet as it is clearly his right to do so as much as it is his right to speak his mind in the first place.
While the tweet was no where close to the sensitive nature of his slavery and 9/11 conspiracy tweets, it was a tweet nonetheless that puts him back under the microscope. Mendenhall himself must have seen this as well or he would never have deleted it. Mendenhall has just as many supporters as he does detractors for speaking his mind on the social media giant, so the deletion is a bit curious this time around.
Just last week in a sit down interview with Bob Pompeani, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin responded to the controversial remarks Mendenhall made on his Twitter account in the aftermath of the death of Osama bin Laden and said, ““He shouldn’t have said it. Yes, it is a freedom of speech issue. Yes, he is a young man, and he has a right to his opinion. But sometimes these young men got to understand the positions that they hold and the influence that they have and to be highly sensitive to that. I think that, more than anything, in those chain of events, he was not sensitive to the power of his words or his positions on that subject or on any subject. I think life is an education. I think these young men or continually educated to what comes along with being them, and that’s just an example of it.”
Once again I should state that I have no problem with Mendenhall speaking his mind, but he has to understand that every time he does so, it will be heavily scrutinized in light of his recent controversial remarks. It is what media and bloggers do. As long as he is fine with that, then he should have at it and stand behind what he tweets. I am not here to judge Mendenhall, but I am willing to bet the Steelers organization is or at least will be taking it into consideration when his 5 year rookie contract is over after the 2012 season.
