This morning the Steelers took another step towards putting the offseason off the field incidents of Hines Ward, James Harrison and Rashard Mendenhall behind them as all three players met the media this morning to answer questions. Ben Roethlisberger also answered questions as well. This obviously was carefully coordinated by the Steelers brass and it is a great move.
Mendenhall refused for the most part to talk about his controversial 9/11 Bin Laden tweets as he is currently in court suing Champion over his lost endorsement deal. Mendenhall did say that the comments made by Harrison about him being a fumble machine where no big deal and that the media just needed something to talk about. He says he didn\’t take those comments personally.
Harrison was asked about his situation and in essence apologized to commissioner Roger Goodell thru the media for calling him nasty names in the Men\’s Journal article. Harrison admitted his comments were way out of line and that he was speaking out of anger and frustration and apologizes for that.
[audio:https://steelersdepot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/james-harrison-latrobe11.mp3|titles=James Harrison 2011 Training Camp]
Ward was a bit guarded while talking about his recent DUI arrest and said he knows his Dancing with the Stars appearance made story huge nationally. He said he has not heard from league so far, and neither Mike Tomlin nor Art Rooney II have spoken to him a out his DUI so far. He went on to say he will leave the arrest in the hands of his attorney and believes the result will be favorable. He added that he does not think this will be a distraction.
Roethlisberger said the Harrison comments made about him were no big deal and that he and Harrison were joking about it when it turned into a national story. Roethlisberger said he has been in touch with Plaxico Burress and lobbying for his return to Pittsburgh. He went on to talk about the return of Willie Colon and said that he may be stronger and better than ever.
Credit to Tweets by Scott Brown, Mark Kaboly, Ed Bouchette, Mike Prisuta and Will Graves.
