Now we know why Mendenhall left early. Ron Zook's sliminess follows him around.
Mendenhall's relationship with UI on rocky side
By Bob Asmussen
Days before the start of the 2007 season, running back
Rashard Mendenhall said he considered quitting the Illinois football team.
"I sat down and I was like, 'If this is what football is, I don't know if I want to do that anymore,' " Mendenhall said. "I'm not soft at all. I'm not scared of adversity. I don't care if somebody's yelling at me. That's not what it was about at all.
"I want to be happy in my life. I know I can walk away from this. I know I can finish school, get a job."
Fortunately for Rashard Mendenhall, his brother Walter intervened and convinced him to stay with the team.
"My brother was the one who kept me there," Mendenhall said. "He got me refocused. He let me realize it was bigger than me. It wasn't all about me. It was about my family. It's about kids I hadn't even met yet who I would impact by (quitting). I love the game of football, but so much other stuff taints it."
How close did he come to leaving?
"There was a point where we were at the stadium and I was ready to start walking out and my brother stopped me," Mendenhall said. "I wasn't walking out like I was playing around for the day. I don't play around with stuff like that."
Mendenhall went on to have the best season ever by an Illini running back, breaking the yardage and touchdown records for a 9-4 team. He became the school's first Big Ten MVP since Don Thorp in 1983 and the first first-round draft pick (by the Steelers) since 1996.
"I'm grateful," Mendenhall said. "I've always appreciated it."
But the success on the field doesn't mean Mendenhall was happy off of it.
"Everything always looks good on the outside," Mendenhall said. "Nobody really knows except for the people who are there and involved with it. The only thing being on the outside that you can know is what people allow you to know from talking to me or from talking to (Ron) Zook or anybody within the organization."
Bottom line for Mendenhall was that he didn't enjoy the season the way you think he might have.
"When you find things that were said, you can kind of read between the lines and see that everything wasn't as it appeared to be," Mendenhall said.
Mendenhall's current relationship with the Illinois football program can best be described as strained. You won't see him on the sidelines of Illinois games during the upcoming season. Or in future years either.
"To tell you the truth, as long as Ron Zook is there it will be hard for me to support the University of Illinois football team," Mendenhall said.
Reached Saturday afternoon, Zook said "I feel bad that he feels that way."
"Obviously, he was a heckuva player for the University of Illinois and was very, very instrumental in the success that we had last year. You hate to see players who are disgruntled. It happens for whatever reason.
"We were obviously fair with Rashard and we tried to make him the best player he could possibly be. To me, he was a pretty good player and it paid off that he's going to have an opportunity to be a heckuva pro football player as well."
Zook said Mendenhall was treated the same as the other Illini.
"We coached him and Walter just like we coached everyone else," Zook said. "We're very, very appreciative of the contributions that him and Walter made to our program."
The Steelers' bye week this season coincides with the Oct. 11 Illinois- Minnesota game at Memorial Stadium. Instead of visiting Champaign- Urbana, Mendenhall plans to be in Cedar Falls, Iowa, to watch Walter play for Illinois State. Earlier this week, Walter Mendenhall agreed to join Denver Johnson's program for his final year of eligibility.
"The biggest thing I can stress is that it's not about my brother and what happened to him," Rashard Mendenhall said. "It's so much more than that. It's so much that's going on right now, that went on with me that people don't know. It's hard for me to support how things are done."
Walter Mendenhall had one year of eligibility remaining at Illinois. He graduated in May and began to look for college playing options. At Illinois State, he will compete with returning starter Geno Blow.
"I'm definitely excited for him," Rashard Mendenhall said.
Mendenhall said he has no animosity toward the school. He has two semesters of work to do before graduating and plans to finish.
"I love the university," Mendenhall said. "It's a great school."
Mendenhall said every college football program has its own set of issues.
"Life isn't fair and football's not going to be completely fair," Mendenhall said. "I understand that. I was completely aware of that."
Mendenhall has entered another arena where life might not be fair: the NFL. He is spending most of the month with the Steelers, participating in workouts while looking for a place to live.
"It's a lot different," Mendenhall said. "I have to get accustomed to being in a new city. There's a lot going on. I'm trying to get a house. You're starting from scratch."
He hasn't signed a contract with the Steelers. Negotiations between the team and his agents will start in the next couple of weeks.
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