Day 134

Fresh Start_134: A Sour Sugar Bowl

Any criminally charged case in sports, regardless of the player or sport it is, is a tricky situation. Every case is circumstantial and every case needs to be treated differently than the last. The decision of whether or not to allow a football player to continue his career came up once again last night during the broadcast of the Sugar Bowl. The game was being played in New Orleans between Auburn and Oklahoma. The player in question was Oklahoma Sooners running back Joe Mixon. Mixon was caught on camera punching another female Oklahoma student during a party. Mixon was benched by Oklahoma Bob Stoops, then given a second chance and played in the Sugar Bowl. The reason for the outrage over Twitter last night was because the head color man for ESPN; Brent Musburger wished Mixon a good playing career in the NFL. The entire Twitterverse exploded at these comments and took it into their own hands to reprimand Mr. Musburger. Let me be clear about the situation, I really like Musburger as an announcer. I think he calls an excellent game, and is probably a better basketball color man than football—but he over stepped here. Musburger made a comment during the game about his earlier comments regarding Mixon and it went like this… “Let me make something perfectly clear; what he did with that young lady was brutal, uncalled for, he’s apologized, he was tearful, and he was gotten a second chance. He got a second chance from coach Bob Stoops, I happen to pull for people with second chances, okay. And, I hope he was a wonderful career and he teaches people with that brutal violent video…”

I happen to like the comment that Musburger made to cover his own backside, even if he didn’t really want to have a further comment. Every commentator has a moment on air that makes the news the following morning, and what happened last night during the broadcast of the Sugar Bowl, in my opinion was perfectly okay. It was a move that NBC’s Al Michael’s and Chris Collinsworth failed to mention earlier in the NFL season when they were doing a game in Denver, talking about Tyreek Hill. Hill plays for the Kansas City Chiefs and what he did while at college in Oklahoma State is absolutely unforgivable in my opinion. Hill admitted in court that he punched and choked his then pregnant girlfriend. I personally want Hill to rot in a jail cell, but he will continue to take the NFL by storm with his amazing ability at Wide Receiver.

It is not uncommon for a professional athlete to come in contact with the law and walk away from it with no penalty. It happens almost every year when a player gets a DUI, but in some cases it’s different. Ray Lewis, Plaxico Burress, Chad Johnson, among others all walk away without jail time even with the charges against them. I am not here to argue whether that is right or wrong to let them play (that argument could go on for years).

What I am here to address is why Joe Mixon will have a career in the NFL somewhere…maybe. We have seen it many times for a player to have problems and still succeed in sports, not just football. Look at Josh Hamilton in baseball when he came back to the game with the Texas Rangers. Hamilton was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays, but never played for them. What happened to Hamilton was he got addicted to drugs and alcohol and was forced to leave the game. He returned to baseball with the Rangers and they set up a system to keep Hamilton clean. The culture and atmosphere around the Texas locker room aloud for the Rangers to do this. In my estimation the same thing is happening with Hill in Kansas City. The Chiefs are aware of the situation and they are taking matters in their own hands to keep Hill on the right path. This is something that the New England Patriots didn’t have for Aaron Hernandez, and we know how that ended up.

So for Mixon to have a career in the NFL if he declares for the draft, it will be with a team that will be able to handle the heat of Mixon’s past and will be able to have the culture in place to make sure he is on the right path and focuses on just football. There are players like Mixon in every draft that you just don’t hear about because they never get drafted. The player might not have the same situation as Mixon, but teams will pass on guys with a difficult past, especially if the law has gotten involved. It happened to Hill and Hernandez in their respective drafts. So, even though I don’t agree with what Mixon has done, and I don’t think he should be able to play, he will and I understand that it happens. I also appalled Brent Musburger for tackling the issue head on and not shying away from the criticism and standing tall. I won’t be shocked either way if Mixon is playing on Sunday’s next year or not.

Sources:(espn.com, twitter.com)

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