Some wounds take a long time to heal. Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashad Mendenhall took to Twitter Sunday night to call out his former teammate, retired quarterback Ben Roethlisberger
“If {Roethlisberger} is the ‘leader' you say he is, why hasn't he taken credit for the fall,” Mendenhall tweeted. We win it’s him, lose it’s me… or Tomlin huh..”
It is unclear what Mendenhall could have been alluding to specifically, but one can infer by inserting himself at the end of the tweet, he might have been referencing the Steelers' 31-25 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl back in 2011. Mendenhall had a momentum-changing turnover to begin the fourth quarter when he fumbled the ball near midfield with the Steelers trailing 21-17. The now infamous misstep led to a Packers touchdown. Mendenhall, unfortunately, became best known as a Super Bowl scapegoat.
Roethlisberger threw two interceptions (one a pick-six) in the game that led to 14 Green Bay-points. Those mistakes are not as high on the two-time Super Bowl champion's highlight reel, though. Mendenhall rushed for 1,273 yards and 13 touchdowns that same season and actually won a Super Bowl ring with the Steelers in his rookie year (only played four games) against the Arizona Cardinals.
If Mendenhall does still have hard feelings about how his fumble was perceived, it would not be the first time he tried to shift the blame elsewhere. He seemed especially fired-up about it in a June 2022 NSFW tweet. Mendenhall clearly believes a team-loss should be treated as such, instead of the public honing in on one player.
It is safe to say Roethlisberger and Mendenhall will not be be getting together to reminisce about the good old days anytime soon.
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