Rashard Mendenhall

#1      

BMoreIllini

BMoreIllini
Baltimore, MD
BMoreIllini
Thought this forum could use a bit of a feel good story after what happened on Saturday. Some back story on how I stumbled upon this - there's a TV show on HBO called Ballers, it stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a former NFL player trying to make it post-retirement as a financial advisor, etc so that young NFL players don't make the same financial mistakes that he made. A bunch of current and former NFL stars and personalities appear on the show all the time. Anyway, during the credits after an episode I see: Producer: Rashard Mendenhall. I thought to myself, "Surely that's not the same Rashard from "The Beloved". I did some digging on Wiki and IMDB and sure enough it was. Rashard retired from the NFL at the young age of 28 and achieved his dream of being a writer and producer, I can only imagine how awesome it is for him to be able to write on a show that features the NFL and football on forefront of the storyline and get to work with stars like The Rock, Mark Wahlberg, and current NFL stars that appear on the show. He's even said that some episodes are loosely based on his experiences. Funny enough, a story line in the current season is a player who is contemplating leaving football for other interests, also at 28. I wonder who that could be based on.... His role for the show range from story editor to staff writer to writer to producer.

I thought it was a cool story for a guy from U of I to retire on his terms when other interests outweighed playing football (he cited travel and writing as two big reasons)and he's become successful off the field. Here's an article from before the show even came out that features Rashard:

https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/rashard-mendenhall-the-real-player-behind-ballers-20150701/
 
#2      

BMoreIllini

BMoreIllini
Baltimore, MD
BMoreIllini
I thought it was interesting that in that article there's this snippet:

"Once, at the University of Illinois, he hobbled to the team facility with a broken ankle, and the coaches told him to suit up for a scrimmage anyway. “My shoe is taped to my f****** leg, and I played in a scrimmage,” he says."
 
#3      

LFOD

LFOD
LFOD
That's a great story! Thanks for finding that!

And good for Rashard. I love watching football, but it's a brutal game. I'm glad he made it through all that without a single concussion (that's a bit hard to believe, actually).
 
#4      

ILL_INI

ILL_INI
ILL_INI
This is old news for most of the regulars on this board, but I'm glad you brought it up. We might need more of these as the season progresses. It's kind of like when the announcers bring up old stories to distract the viewers from the blowout on the field.
 
#5      

BMoreIllini

BMoreIllini
Baltimore, MD
BMoreIllini
ILL_INI said:
This is old news for most of the regulars on this board, but I'm glad you brought it up. We might need more of these as the season progresses. It's kind of like when the announcers bring up old stories to distract the viewers from the blowout on the field.
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I figured that may be the case, considering the article linked was from over 4 years ago, but never hurts to revisit it and the fact that his role on the show has grown and the show itself has been successful. I definitely think the board could use more stories like it given the circumstances around the program and how down we are after the loss.
 
#6      

logjam

logjam
logjam
ILL_INI said:
This is old news for most of the regulars on this board, but I'm glad you brought it up. We might need more of these as the season progresses. It's kind of like when the announcers bring up old stories to distract the viewers from the blowout on the field.
Click to expand...
We get our news a little bit later than most in Illinois. But good on Rashard
 
#7      

illiniorphan

illiniorphan
Centralia
illiniorphan
BMoreIllini said:
Thought this forum could use a bit of a feel good story after what happened on Saturday. Some back story on how I stumbled upon this - there's a TV show on HBO called Ballers, it stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a former NFL player trying to make it post-retirement as a financial advisor, etc so that young NFL players don't make the same financial mistakes that he made. A bunch of current and former NFL stars and personalities appear on the show all the time. Anyway, during the credits after an episode I see: Producer: Rashard Mendenhall. I thought to myself, "Surely that's not the same Rashard from "The Beloved". I did some digging on Wiki and IMDB and sure enough it was. Rashard retired from the NFL at the young age of 28 and achieved his dream of being a writer and producer, I can only imagine how awesome it is for him to be able to write on a show that features the NFL and football on forefront of the storyline and get to work with stars like The Rock, Mark Wahlberg, and current NFL stars that appear on the show. He's even said that some episodes are loosely based on his experiences. Funny enough, a story line in the current season is a player who is contemplating leaving football for other interests, also at 28. I wonder who that could be based on.... His role for the show range from story editor to staff writer to writer to producer.

I thought it was a cool story for a guy from U of I to retire on his terms when other interests outweighed playing football (he cited travel and writing as two big reasons)and he's become successful off the field. Here's an article from before the show even came out that features Rashard:

https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/rashard-mendenhall-the-real-player-behind-ballers-20150701/
Click to expand...
Nice post, I will keep looking for more from you~!!