Mendenhall Sues Champion After Termination

Rashard Mendenhall is suing the company that terminated him after a series of controversial Tweets about Osama Bin Laden and asking for more than $1 million in damages according to Darren Rovell of CNBC.

Mendenhall’s lawsuit was filed this afternoon in North Carolina District Court, where Champion’s parent company Hanesbrands has its headquarters.

“This case involves the core question of whether an athlete employed as a celebrity endorser loses the right to express opinions simply because the company whose products he endorses might disagree with some (but not all) of those opinions,” the suit reads.

Champion’s contract with him, which ran through April 2015, does have a version of a morals clause, which specifically says that the company can terminate him if he “commits or is arrested for any crime or becomes involved in any situation or occurrence tending to bring Mendenhall into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule, or tending to shock, insult or offend the majority of the consuming public.”