Retired NFL running back Rashard Mendenhall apparently doesn’t have the best memory in the world as his recent claim that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger once stuck a rookie offensive linemen with $25,000 party tab is apparently not completely factual.
A source with knowledge of the situation informed Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk that the alleged incident claimed by Mendenhall started off as a 2008 dinner for the Steelers offensive linemen at a steakhouse, not a club. The group of offensive linemen then decided that then-rookie tackle Tony Hills would be paying for it all. The Steelers quarterbacks apparently showed up to the dinner as well and Roethlisberger, according to Florio, paid for roughly half of the huge bill on the spot after Hills was unable to do so. Hills then reportedly reimbursed Roethlisberger at a later date.
Even though it appears as though Roethlisberger really didn’t do anything wrong, I’m sure that the quarterback will be asked by the media to further explain the details of the 2008 dinner in the coming weeks thanks to Mendenhall’s claim in a recent interview with Men’s Journal. People always tend to remember the original reports and not the follow-ups.
Mendenhall, who currently writes for the HBO show “Ballers”, likely embellished the dinner story in order to gain a little bit of extra press and potential interest in his work. Who knows, perhaps he will try to write the alleged incident into a future episode of the show.
It will be interesting to see if Hills, who is currently a member of the Dallas Cowboys, is asked to comment on Mendenhall’s accusation during training camp as well being as he is reportedly the one that got “stuck” by the Steelers quarterback.
Don’t you just love the dead period of the offseason?
