On Wednesday I wrote that while there is nothing wrong with Rashard Mendenhall voicing his opinion, you would have thought he would have chosen his words carefully. I had mentioned that as a public figure with close ties to the community through his affiliation with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he will be held accountable for any reactions his comments might cause. I concluded my blog by saying that if you play with matches you will get burned. Yesterday, Rashard Mendenhall got burned -- as in fired.
USA today reported yesterday that Mendenhall was dropped by Champion, the athletic apparel company after he made controversial tweets objecting to the celebration of the death of Osama bin Laden by U.S. Special Forces on Sunday. According to the article, Champion said it was ending their business relationship citing that the Company does not believe he can appropriately represent its brand.
Now I'm not sure how lucrative his deal was but the article did go on to say that he recently signed a four year contract extension to 2015. Mendenhall is a very good running back but he is by no means a star, just yet. Considering how short the career of most NFL players are, I'm guessing the loss of this endorsement cost him a significant amount of money. Of course, there is also no way to tell how much his little diatribe will cost him in future endorsements, but it's fair to say that no one will be hiring him to hawk their product anytime soon.
Don't play with matches.
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