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Steelers Running Back Rashard Mendenhall Defends Osama Bin Laden, Saying ‘We’ve Only Heard One Side’

The mixture of professional athletes and Twitter is rarely a positive one for sports organizations. For examples, you could look at Max Pacioretty‘s insult toward Brad Marchand last week, WNBA player Cappie Pondexter‘s assertion that the earthquake and tsunami in Japan may have been punishment for Pearl Harbor or Bills receiver Stevie Johnson blaming God for a dropped pass in the end zone. The list goes on and on and on.

Now, you can add Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall to that list, and he may have instantly vaulted directly to the top.

The 23-year-old native of Illinois didn’t like the way Americans were celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden on Monday, and he let out his frustrations on Twitter.

“What kind of person celebrates death?” Mendenhall, who last made national headlines for fumbling in the Super Bowl and “celebrating” a little too hard with Ben Roethlisberger in the playoffs, wrote. “It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side …”

Aside from the obviously questionable position of defending the most well-known terrorist in the world, Mendenhall is factually incorrect. Osama bin Laden was the founder of al-Qaeda, claimed to be the mastermind behind the horrific attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001, has shown no remorse in targeting women and children in his attacks and has been the No. 1 most wanted target of the FBI. Maybe — maybe — you can make a case against the celebration of a man’s death, but to say we’ve only heard one side of the story, to suggest that we, as Americans, are brainwashed into hating this evil man, that’s more than a little over the line.

That wasn’t all, though, as Mendenhall expressed doubt that airplanes could have demolished the World Trade Center.

“We’ll never know what really happened,” Mendenhall wrote. “I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.”

Obviously, Mendenhall has spent at least 15 minutes watching some of the awesome 9/11 conspiracy videos on YouTube, and he’s passing that off as “enlightenment.”

“There is not an ignorant bone in my body,” he said. “I just encourage you to [think].”

Safe to say that the rest of America encourages the same for you.

Photo of the day

Did Rashard Mendenhall make any worthy points? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Quote of the day

“Timmy [Thomas] was pretty sick, not just on that kill, but that whole game. There is nobody better than him. He is unbelievable. … He was incredible. That third period on was a clinic. I don’t even know what to say anymore, he is just unbelievable.”
–Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference, on goaltender Tim Thomas, who made an unbelievable 52 saves to help Boston build a 2-0 series lead over Philadelphia

Tweet of the day

When Dennis Eckersley is calling Red Sox games, you never know what he’ll say next.

Video of the day

As mentioned earlier, Tim Thomas had himself quite a night on Monday. How nice, you ask? Watch below.