Rashard Mendenhall says his style as a running back changed for a simple reason: he could not keep trying to run through everyone after a brutal rookie-year injury. The former Pittsburgh Steelers back said a hit from Ray Lewis forced him to adjust, even if it later drew criticism from fans and media.
On the NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, Mendenhall explained that the injury made him rethink how he played. “That’s when it had to evolve,” he said, adding that after the hit he realized, “Maybe I’m not that big. Maybe I can’t run over everybody out here.”
The Injury That Changed Everything
Mendenhall said the turning point came in his rookie season, when he suffered a broken shoulder after colliding with Lewis in Week 4. He had entered the league at around 5-foot-10 and more than 220 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine, but the injury made him shift from a power-heavy approach to a more patient style.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Player | Rashard Mendenhall |
| Injury | Broken shoulder |
| Cause | Hit from Ray Lewis |
| Timing | Week 4 of his rookie year |
He said he had tried to bring that same approach from college, but the injury forced a different mindset. In his words, he had to find “some different ways” to get through defenses and add “a little more finesse” to his game.
Why Some Steelers Fans Called Him “Spindenhall”
That adjustment did not always go over well in Pittsburgh. Mendenhall said some fans and media members started calling him “Spindenhall” during his second season because he spun so often and seemed to dance behind the line.
He said he understood the reaction at the time, but wished he could have explained the reason behind the change. After the shoulder injury, he said he was no longer trying to run the same way he had before, and that meant more patience and more movement instead of straight power.
Despite the criticism, the new style produced results. Mendenhall rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of the next two seasons after the injury, showing that the adjustment worked at least for a while.
A Style That Fit, Until It Didn’t
The shift also made Mendenhall a bit of a preview for what the Steelers later saw from Le’Veon Bell, whose patient running became a trademark. Bell was better at it, and he ran behind a stronger offensive line, but the comparison still highlights how Mendenhall’s game evolved.
Even so, his career did not stay on that track for long. He suffered a serious knee injury late in the 2011 season and was never the same after that, which made the earlier change in style only part of a short peak.
Mendenhall has also said he does not regret the hit from Lewis, because he wanted to show he was not afraid. That mindset may have helped define his early career, but the injury forced him to become a different kind of runner in Pittsburgh.
For a player who entered the league with bruising size and confidence, the label “Spindenhall” became part criticism and part shorthand for survival. In the end, the change helped him produce, even if it never fully changed how some Steelers fans remembered him.
