Rashard Mendenhall Needs To Wake Up

The attorneys for Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall filed suit Monday, asking for $1 million in damages from the parent company of apparel maker Champion. Mendenhall is upset at Champion for dropping the extension of his endorsement deal because of his tweets about Osama bin Laden and the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001. 

Attorneys claimed that the suit is regarding a breach of contract and that "this is not about the money, but whether he (Mendenhall) can express his opinion."

Translation:  it's about the money. 

Champion first signed Mendenhall when he entered the NFL in 2008. The company says that they refused to extend the agreement days after Mendenhall's May tweets, regarding how he couldn't understand the US celebration of bin Laden's death. He also questioned why Americans could hate bin Laden if they never heard him speak and about his failure to understand how an aircraft could take down a skyscraper "demolition style."  

Earlier this year, Mendenhall sent controversial tweets comparing the NFL to slavery and about women who did not perform oral sex on a partner: "It's either going to be you or some other chick." 

Champion is well within their rights to terminate their agreement with Mendenhall. The agreement includes provisions barring him from actions that would bring him "into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule, or tending to shock, insult, or offend the majority of the consuming public." 

Read the contract Rashard and good luck.