Rashard Mendenhall's candid tweets about Osama bin Laden's death and the 9/11 terror attacks cost him an endorsement deal. Athletic apparel manufacturer Champion announced Thursday that it had dropped the Pittsburgh Steelers running back after he questioned the celebrations of bid Laden's death and expressed his uncertainty over official accounts of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York, suburban Washington and Pennsylvania. Spokesman Matt Hall told USA Today that the company was "ending our business relationship" with Mendenhall because it didn't believe he "can appropriately represent Champion." Mendenhall had endorsed the company since 2008 and signed a four-year contract with it earlier this year. Mendenhall responded Monday on Twitter to the joy greeting last weekend's announcement that a U.S. military team had killed bin Laden in a Pakistani mansion. He first tweeted, "What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing how people can HATE and man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side...I just have a hard time believing a plan could take a skyscraper down demolition style". Source: NFL.com
Two words come to mind. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blznLIJOgRw&feature=related]YouTube - Nelson- HA HA[/ame]
So if you don't believe everything the government tells you, you can't have an endorsement deal with this company? That's bullcrap. There'll be other endorsement deals.
I agree. It's bullcrap for them to drop him for this. He deserves it because he should have know better but it still sucks.
I'm sure it's in his contract that he can't just mouth off about controversial things, now shut up Rashard
Again...it's Champion. If not for Mendenhall signing with them and now being cut by them...I wouldn't even remember they were relevant...lol.
86 at the end of the day it doesn't matter if it's not Nike, as a spokesperson for a brand you are expected to show the brand under a good light not a controversial one. Telling your best friend one on one what you think is a huge difference then announcing what he did to literally millions of people.
Wonder if they would have done the same thing, if he was celebrating the death of Bin Laden on twitter?
not surprised you missed the boat on this one. this has nothing to do with the governement. this is a company dropping a person hired to endorese products that was stupid enough to say/post something that angered 99% of the customer base. welcome to capitalism.
I do think its a little silly for them to drop him, but he should have never posted that on Twitter to begin with. He's knowing that now, guess some silly fans that "misread" the real meaning behind his message has a lot more pull than he thinks. Idiot.
