Wow, surprised to see all the love for Mendenhall, who's as pedestrian as they come and, oh by the way, solidified himself this week as a self-absorbed ### hole.
Think it's a little more complicated than that.
The general scuttlebutt I'm hearing informally is that there is a clear split in the Steelers front office. Word is the GM, Colbert, essentially promised Mendenhall that if he was healthy, he would start. Period. But that Omar Khan, one of the top front office prospects in the league, mostly for his understanding of cap management, has the ear of Dan Rooney and pushed to have Mendenhall cycle out of the organization. Like many teams that disproportionately pay their linebacking corps ( you can see a clear split in the league with teams that philosophically will or will not), the money has to come from somewhere and someplace against the cap.
Generally speaking, NFL franchises are now a little leery of capologists but with little actual football/personnel background. The reason so many elevate is they operate like "Henry Hills", their role with helping to decide who gets paid what generally allows them to shift across the various sections of the standard NFL front office.
Part of the appeal of Khan is he's seen as a package unit with Bill Cowher. Cowher wants to coach, but like most veteran coaches, wants final say on personnel but have others take care of the mundane and unpleasant contract/money issues. Outside of the Steelers, Khan would simply be another capologist. Within the Steelers, who won't take Cowher back as it's simply time to move on, Khan would stand a better chance of garnering full personnel control. Cowher wants Khan to to be his spear thrower. Khan wants to be his own GM and find a coach to be his spearthrower.
Mendenhall is a young guy and has a reason to be upset, but he's handling it the wrong way. The Rooneys are one of the most powerful families in the country, not just within the NFL. Crossing a Rooney isn't a good idea for your general health.
Over the years on this board, I've talked about organizational stability and unit integrity within every specific facet of the franchise. This is when you start having problems with an organization - Not everyone's ships are sailing in the same direction. The focus is less on winning the conflict with the enemy teams but winning a zero sum game within your own franchise.
Mendenhall, like a lot of players, got caught in a front office power struggle. But he should have just shut his mouth, be thankful that hes still only 25 and was young enough to start in the league that even signing under the old CBA won't hinder him trying to get one more decent sized contract.
Khan is a case where he will never be an autonomous GM no matter what anyone says. Barring political correctness, IMHO, he's too young and too dark for the old guard league to accept him into their fraternity of GMs. This is a case where the Rooney Rule for executives might make a difference ( You there Borbeley? How's the Amy Trask for GM campaign going?) except the Rooney Rule doesn't actually care about Omar Khan. The Rooney Rule IMHO doesn't want to end any potential racial bias, it simply wants to shift it a certain way for a certain group under threat of adversarial legalism and bad PR. ( Did you see Tony Dungy lobby for Norm Chow to get the Hawaii job, Borbeley? Neither did I)
Mendenhall is in the wrong here. You signed the contract. Suit up or don't suit up. Keep your mouth shut, take your free agency when it happens and then try to stick it to the franchise later. And you don't oppose the Rooney's. The Western media isn't going to take your side against the Rooney family. The truth means little in the NFL power structure, just the perception of it.
This is not just a story about a wayward running back. That's just the surface. This is the story of a franchise unable to overcome it's dysfunction regarding unit morale and unit stability within it's ranks.
