Funny.
This is what happens when someone tries to take that retarded conspiracy theory into the normal public domain. Idiot.
No, Rashard Mendenhall, your free-speech rights were not violatedPUBLISHED Wednesday, Jul 20, 2011
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http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-07-20/no-rashard-mendenhall-your-free-speech-rights-were-not-violated#ixzz1SoyMDZV1Rashard Mendenhall is suing Champion for firing him as an endorser. News of the lawsuit was greeted with cheers in a prison cell in Nevada.
We all know how O.J. Simpson would vote if he were on the jury. Fortunately, the Juice still has 30 years left on his kidnapping and robbery sentence, so he won’t be weighing evidence anytime soon.
And Mendenhall’s case should be laughed out of court long before any jury pools are called. It’s based on the premise that anybody can say anything at any time, and there’s nothing his employer can do about it.
Mendenhall didn’t actually say anything. But through the loaded gun of Twitter, the Steelers’ running back weighed in after Navy SEALs rid the world of Osama bin Laden.
“What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side … ”
Yes, if only poor Osama had been allowed to express his side to the American public. Mendenhall then went conspiracy kook about 9-11.
“We’ll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style.”
His tweets undoubtedly went over big in certain parts of Afghanistan. But Champion doesn’t sell a lot of underwear over there. Its target audience is primarily Americans, most of whom quickly decided Mendenhall was a moron.
Champion didn’t find that a particularly good marketing strategy, so it dropped Mendenhall as a spokesman. He is now seeking more than $1 million from Hanesbrand, which owns Champion.
But honestly, he’s only doing it for the First Amendment.
“For Rashard, this is really not about the money,” said his lawyer Steven Thompson. “This is about whether he can express his opinion.”
Of course he can. But anyone who’s taken high school civics or followed Tiger Woods’ career knows there are limits. One of them is when you sign a contract to represent a business, that business can expect you to not come off as a moron.
Accenture dropped Woods after he was exposed as a serial letch. Something about the “Go on, be a Tiger” slogan just didn’t sound right anymore.
Gatorade also jettisoned Woods, costing him an estimated $20 million a year. Tiger didn’t claim his Constitutional rights have been violated. Neither did Michael Phelps when Kellogg’s dropped him after bong-hit photos hit the Internet.
Companies have long fired the messenger when the messenger screws up. McDonald’s jettisoned Kobe Bryant after he was charged with sexual assault. Nike bounced Michael Vick after all that dog business.
Simpson made Hertz famous by running through an airport hurdling suitcases. The rental car company still fired him after domestic abuse allegations in 1992.
O.J. reportedly encountered a few more legal problems. The latest have landed him in Lovelock Correctional Center.
I’m not sure why Mendenhall thinks he is different from all the other ex-endorsers. Champions contract barred him from actions that would bring him “into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule.”
He got all of those. Mendenhall’s lawsuit claims Champion blindsided him. After all, he’d earlier tweeted idiocies like “Anyone with knowledge of the slave trade and the NFL could say these two parallel each other.”
A few weeks later, he tweeted women should perform oral sex on men because “It’s either gonna be you, OR some other chick.”
Then he goes on his 9-11 rant, and Hanesbrand got its underwear all in a wad. A “kneejerk reaction,” the lawsuit claims.
So what? The plaintiff’s theory seems to be that if an endorser isn’t fired for the first stupid act, they can’t ever be fired.
It’s a novel approach, and I’m sure once First Amendment scholars stop laughing they will pay close attention to Mendenhall vs. Hanesbrand. But the way the judicial system is going these days, who knows?
A couple of Casey Anthony jurors could get involved, and Mendenhall could walk out of court free to tweet anything with impunity.
If that happens, Hertz should expect a collect call from Lovelock. O.J. is going to want his old job back.
http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-07-20/no-rashard-mendenhall-your-free-speech-rights-were-not-violated
