Rashard Mendenhall lost more than his wallet and cell phone in a Chicago stickup early Monday morning. He lost his Rose Bowl watch.

He was thankful he still had his life after the 2 a.m. robbery at gunpoint by men wearing ski masks.

"It's cool," Mendenhall said in his first public comments since the crime, little more than one day after the Steelers' first-round draft pick ended his first minicamp in Pittsburgh with his new teammates.

"It wasn't too bad. I'm safe. I was just hoping he wouldn't pull the trigger. I was just trying to cooperate so he wouldn't."

Mendenhall and a female friend were walking along Chicago's lakefront area when the men approached them. He said a little earlier there were other people around but by then things had died down and there were no other witnesses when they were robbed.

Although Chicago police said they thought the men, who remain at large, knew they were robbing an athlete, Mendenhall did not believe they knew specifically who he was.

"Not before, they probably did afterward," said Mendenhall, who said nothing to his assailants.

It's the first time he has been robbed, Mendenhall said, and he will try to take precautions in the future. Mendenhall was a star running back at the University of Illinois last season. He's the first running back the Steelers have drafted in the first round in 19 years.

"I figure I'll be conscious and wary of situations," he said.

Mendenhall's mother, Sybil, said she discussed just such a thing with her son before the robbery.

"This was wake-up call to know it's for real now," she said. "We had that discussion. When you're in downtown Chicago, you think you're OK. It's usually safe, with all the activities and things going on and a lot of people walking on the lakefront at night.

"But these are different times, people are desperate and some people do what they think they have to do."

After he was robbed, Mendenhall called his mother on his friend's cell phone -- she left her purse back in the car and had the phone hidden. Sybil Mendenhall canceled her son's credit cards and cell phone.

"I was little disturbed, but I've lived in Chicago all my life and understand those things happen there,' she said. "It's a relief he didn't get shot or anything, but that is sometimes the case."

Mendenhall plans to rejoin his new teammates May 20 when they resume their offseason workouts. He watched practice on the final two days of the three-day minicamp because of a hamstring injury the first day.

He said yesterday his leg feels "pretty good."