Mendenhall retiring

Very nice read. At least he walks away from the game on his terms, and is content with his decision. He penned a great article, and good luck to him with his future endeavors.

 

Boy, did we ever dream when we drafted Mendenhall in the first and Sweed in the second what a couple of head cases we had gotten ahold of? I hope the Steelers are putting all potential draft picks through a psychological analysis as we speak.

 

So Mendy wants to travel the world and write????

 

Did you read the article, Jack? There's one paragraph where he picks out the problems with football today which echo what's said on this board pretty much every week:

For a "headcase", he comes across as pretty well-adjusted.

 

I agree. He wont be the only one to walk away "early" because of how the game as changed.

 

Mendy is quite intelligent and articulate. Not sure either if he could be characterized as a head case lol

Bman

 

So true. Mendenhall's observations about the NFL are spot on. Money and media are ruining the sport. But I wonder how many players like Mendenhall receive that paycheck and then lose their heart. It's not a criticism; it's an acknowledgment of human nature. As much as I dislike Tom Brady, one thing he has, amazingly, is a desire to keep winning, improving. He has a super model wife, all the wealth one could ask for, three SB rings...and still he's striving for more. Same thing with Michael Jordan back in the day.

It's hard to stay motivated when you reach your goals. And for these kids coming out of college, to sign huge multi-million $ contracts (despite the rookie cap), you can't tell me that motivation and desire start to wane. Perhaps it's happened to Woodley.

 

I don't think you do. He is obviously far more intelligent then you think.

 

I don't know man... You can say every level has gotten corrupted starting with the Pop Warner, you mean to tell me he just noticed the "corruption of the game" when he got to the NFL.... PLEEAAAAASE!!!

 

Is it just me or does every time Mendy open his mouth something dumber than the time before comes out? He was ok most of his time here but he came out with some goofy stuff

 

I think it's a combination of our education system, alcohol, and too many blows to the head.

 

Not necessarily referring to the article. Was alluding more to him giving OBL a pass and not being a team player. The guy is obviously very intelligent but not the kind of guy I want to be in a foxhole with.

 

He marches to the beat of his own drum, and I commend him for that...
Takes guts, to be different, and just live like you believe, no matter what others think.
Especially, when, as he said in the article, other`s perception of you affect your paycheck.
I don`t agree with any of his political views, but he is free to have them.
And he certainly doesn`t come across as "uneducated"...
I won`t carry a torch for him, and defend all he does, but, I will say he helped us while he was here, more than some of our fans want to admit,
And seems to be yet another case in point, for when the Rooney`s recognized it was time to cut ties with one of their players, before many of their fanbase, or the rest of the League, did...
And I will leave it at that.
More power to ya, Mendy, enjoy your life, outta the "limelite".
GO STEELERS!

 

Why would it be unfortunate if he doesn't come back? If he really doesn't want to play, more power to him for walking away.

 

Well said.

 

Rashard Mendenhall is his own man.

Basically, Rashard Mendenhall is not a one-dimensional person. He makes up his own mind and does not conform. The world can use more people like this. Unfortunately, the world we live in is full of people who expect everyone to be both one-dimensional and conformist. So, to most, this guy seems like some sort of a freak.

I have always considered him to be intelligent, insightful, and, most importantly, inquisitive (which leads him to the aforementioned two attributes).

I'm glad he addressed the perception issue (in all the various forms in which it has been presented).

I think it is phenomenal that he ended by addressing his desire to be the best version of himself by moving forward in a manner that does not require him to stifle himself due to an obligation to represent anyone or anything other than himself.

I respect the fact that he is living his life, on his own terms.

This is the kind of guy who will be successful at anything he does. Because, no matter what, he is true to himself.

 

1. There is a very negative connotation to the word “conform” – but players do need to have some semblance of conforming to be on a team and work towards a common goal. I imagine most of us if not all of us hate conforming, but we have to at times. I think Mendenhall was a guy who had a hard time conforming.
2. I do respect that Mendenhall recognized he wasn’t willing to conform anymore and that he was also tired of the culture of an NFL that supposedly oversees a “team” game but then overindulges in the “fantasy nature” of the sport.
3. Some defense for what Mendy implied about Osama…I thought the rants on conspiracy theories for what happened to the Twin Towers was kooky, but what really got him going was the way some people were throwing a fraternity-style party over the death of an enemy. His point was that we as a country were pretty disgusted to see people in the Middle East jumping up and down and smiling when our country went through 9/11 yet many of our citizens did the same thing when we killed Bin Laden. Personally – I am glad Bin Laden is dead, but Mendenhall’s point about celebrating his death like a party is a viewpoint worth listening to. I'll stop there, I know TTF doesn't like things morphing into political discussions on geopolitics.
4. Back to football – a lot of us did not like (including me) the way he handled being deactivated and not showing up for the game, but I would also like to say I was completely disgusted with the way Tomlin handled it as well. Tomlin has routinely singled out some players for mistakes while barely lifting a finger to punish others. We all remember Mendy got in the doghouse for the fumble against Cleveland and was immediately banished to the bench. By the time we went through all of our RBs in that game we had 190 lb Chris Rainey running off tackle. Yet Ryan Clark has missed numerous tackles in his career, tried to lay out the big hit instead of actually covering like FS is supposed to and he was never in the doghouse. So yes – Mendy was wrong in missing the game where he was deactivated…probably never would have occurred if Tomlin would have managed his running backs correctly in the first place.
5. Good luck Mendy – you had some good seasons for Pittsburgh. Back to back 1200 yard seasons, you could have been a weapon as a receiving back if Arians would have ever taken the time to actually view using a running back as a receiving threat, and I still do not blame you for the fumble in SB 43 – Legs badly missed his block and you never had a chance once Matthews laid his helmet on the ball.

 

I don't know if he was doing that. I always took his tweets as a "rattling of the cage" more than anything else. I had a friend who kept making the case that there were bombs on those 9/11 planes because the direction of the explosion wasn't right. The explosions should have mostly gone backwards, not forwards. I think there's a conspiracy website out there that has video of one of the planes starting to blow up before hitting the WTC. And with OBL, I think he was making an exaggerated statement about how there was no trial. He was judged, sentenced, and executed without a right to trial. I disagree and don't care that OBL didn't have one, think killing him on the spot was the right move. But I understood that POV.