PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers followed a rare Super Bowl defeat with something just as unusual for one of the NFL’s most stable and well-behaved franchises: A bumpy offseason in which the defending AFC champions made headlines for nearly all the wrong reasons.

Running back Rashard Mendenhall angered some by tweeting his frustration about what he considered an uncivilized response to Osama bin Laden’s death.

..Linebacker James Harrison lashed out at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in a Men’s Journal magazine article, calling him a “crook” and “the devil.”

Veteran wide receiver Hines Ward used his nimble footwork to win “Dancing with the Stars” only to have his image take a hit a few weeks later when he was arrested on a drunk driving charge in Atlanta.

Though Mendenhall and Harrison later apologized and Ward maintains his innocence, their missteps aren’t exactly the kind of behavior that’s become the standard in a city that prefers its Steelers to be hardworking on the field and quiet off it.

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