Here is the most dangerous thing about Twitter: It allows us to say the first thing that comes to mind.
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Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesPittsburgh's Rashard Mendenhall created a stir with his tweets about Osama bin Laden's death.
Twitter often can be a direct bridge to the brain if the owner of the account doesn't exercise restraint. We've seen many cases of that in the past year, and Pittsburgh Steelers tailbackRashard Mendenhall is the latest example.
Mendenhall is getting a lot of heat forhis controversial tweets on the death of Osama bin Laden. It caused so much of a stir nationally that the Steelers issued a statement Tuesday, basically saying they don't share the views of their leading rusher.
This is not a political blog or a conspiracy theorist blog. So we're not going to debate the merit of Mendenhall's comments. But as the star running back of one of the most popular teams in professional sports, Mendenhall should use more discretion with his tweets. There are plenty of other ways to debate controversial subjects in a less public forum.
I've interviewed Mendenhall many times, and in my experience, he's often careful about his word choice. Mendenhall is an intelligent person who's soft-spoken and rarely says more than what's necessary.
But there is something about typing into a computer or cell phone that makes some athletes say things they normally would not in an interview.
Just like anyone else, Mendenhall has every right to his opinions. But with his public position, Mendenhall and other players should be more careful with how they represent their employers.
