"Rashard Mendenhall, under fire for controversial comments he made earlier this week regarding Osama bin Laden and 9/11, said today that he is not "in support of Bin Laden or against the USA."

The Steelers running back also apologized to "anyone I unintentionally harmed with anything that I said, or any hurtful interpretation that was made and put in my name."

On his Twitter account Mendenhall wrote, "I understand how devastating 9/11 was to this country and to the people whose families were affected. Not just in the US, but families all over the world who had relatives in the World Trade Centers. My heart goes out to the troops who fight for our freedoms everyday, not being certain if they will have the opportunity to return home, and the families who watch their loved ones bravely go off to war."

On Monday, Mendenhall had questioned the mass celebrations sparked by the U.S. military operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that obliterated the World Trade Center and killed thousands of people.

"It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak," he wrote on his Twitter account. "We've only heard one side..."

Mendenhall later took the post off his site, and today he tried to clarify what he meant by it."