Rashard Mendenhall Loses Endorsement With Champion Over Osama bin Laden Tweets
If Rashard Mendenhall had to do it all over again, he probably would have never released his controversial comments about Osama bin Laden this week.
The Pittsburgh Steelers running back was dropped as an endorser by corporate sponsor Champion on Thursday.
Champion is “ending our business relationship” with the running back, stating that the brand doesn’t feel he “can appropriately represent Champion,” said spokesman Matt Hall to Game On!
Mendenhall’s comments were, “What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side…”
He later followed those comments with, “I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.”
The 23-year-old football player received immediate backlash, and the Pittsburgh Steelers organization has since distanced themselves from Mendenhall, in a statement from President Art Rooney II, saying, “I have not spoken with Rashard so it is hard to explain or even comprehend what he meant with his recent Twitter comments.”
Mendenhall was an endorser for Champion from 2008-2011, and recently signed a 4-year contract extension to endorse the brand through 2015.
The amount of money that Mendenhall lost due to his Twitter diarrhea wasn’t reported, but it goes without saying that his tweets weren’t worth it.
They should have never gave you football players Twitter.
