Tomlin Speaks His Mind on Mendenhall’s Twitter Comments

Rashard Mendenhall’s controversial comments after the death of Osama Bin Laden and 9/11 attacks drew a great deal of criticism toward the Steelers’ running back.

Mike Tomlin hasn’t said much about the situation until now.

“He shouldn’t have said it,” Tomlin told Bob Pompeani of KDKA TV in Pittsburgh about Mendenhall’s Twitter comments. “Yes, it is a freedom of speech issue. Yes, he is a young man, and he has a right to his opinion. But sometimes these young men got to understand the positions that they hold and the influence that they have and to be highly sensitive to that.”

“I think that, more than anything, in those chain of events, he was not sensitive to the power of his words or his positions on that subject or on any subject. I think life is an education. I think these young men or continually educated to what comes along with being them, and that’s just an example of it.”

“Here’s the thing that I think a lot of people miss, is that that kid was 12 years old on 9/11. He doesn’t have an idea of what pre-9/11 adult life was like in America. He doesn’t understand the ramifications of how life changed in America on that day [be]cause he was a kid.”