The teams’ bulletin read; “Take Mendenhall’s ball away and get $100 from him. And you get an extra $500 if you bring it to the running back’s meeting room.”

 

After fumbling twice in the game against the Minnesota Vikings, the Steelers Willie Parker and Hines Ward got together and told Mendenhall he’d be carrying a ball around wherever he goes this week and is anyone can knock the ball out of his hands, it would cost him a $100.

 

“Hopefully, he won’t have too big of a tab by the end of the week,” Ward said

The drill is to teach the young rookie that fumbles will not be tolerated, but keep the lesson light hearted at the same time.

“It’s for his sake, to get his mind off last game,” Parker said. “Now he has other things to think about. It’s not fun for him, but it is fun for the other guys in the locker room. It’s football. It’s what we do. We just want him to take it a little more serious.”

“We just want to make sure that he’s not fumbling at crucial times,” Ward said. “We just wanted to give him a little extra incentive and motivation.”

 

When asked if a rookie could afford such a potentially steep bill, Ward said,

“What was his signing bonus? He can afford it.”

 

Mendenhall, who said he had never fumbled twice in a game in his college or high school career, was taking the assignment in stride. And he hopes to have the majority of his signing bonus still in the bank by the time the Steelers play host to the Carolina Panthers in the preseason finale Thursday night.

 

As of last night, no one had been awarded the $500 prize.

 

“Yeah I’m losing a little bit of money, but it will be all right,” he said. “It’s part of being a rookie. You have to do anything that’s asked of you, especially if it’s a veteran like Hines.”

 

HARTWIG NAMED STARTING CENTER

In other news, the Steelers have named Justin Hartwig the starting center for this year. Hartwig beat out fellow team mate Sean Mahan, who more than likely will shift to the other side of the offensive line.

 

“It’s a great feeling,” said Hartwig. “It’s good to finally have my role established on the team. I plan on stepping up and being a little more vocal.

 “I put a lot of work in this off-season to get bigger and stronger and get this offence down. My goal was to be on the field, to get out there and understand the offence and make things run smoothly. I am getting a good grasp of what is going on in our offence. I feel pretty confident about it.” 

 STEELERS CUTS

The Steelers cut the following players yesterday (Monday) Quarterback Mike Potts, receiver Jeremy Bloom (from Pittsburgh) and lineman Martavius Prince. They also placed kicker Daniel Sepulveda on the extended IR list. Today (Tuesday) the Steelers released tight end Cody Boyd; in order to get down to the required league minimum.

 

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Tags: Hartwig, Mendenhall, Parker, Steelers, Ward