Joe Mixon and the NFL Draft’s Most Uncomfortable Reality

With the upcoming NFL draft, media outlets and fans have returned to their yearly rituals. Mock drafts upon mock drafts are shared, scrutinized and torn asunder on draft night. Players are put under a microscope and tested, fractions of seconds deciding millions of dollars Divided up between NFL hopefuls. Ambiguous terms are tossed around like “cover corner” (What corner is NOT a cover corner?) and “pro style quarterbacks”. But one of the most intriguing draft season rituals is its most uncomfortable.

Most players have baggage when it comes to evaluating them. Some dominate low levels of competition, some never make an impact in their biggest games. Some are too small or too slow. But what of the players who are morally questionable? Year after year fans and analysts will talk themselves into the idea of a guy who can dominate the field of play if they just steal themselves. The unfortunate, anti-climactic truth of the matter, however, is that people do not change.

This year’s model of the troubled superstar in the making is Joe Mixon, a running back out of Oklahoma. In 2014, Mixon was involved in an altercation where he punched a woman, breaking bones in her face. The incident was known and documented and he served a suspension but in a true sign of the times, once a video surfaced was when Mixon truly felt the backlash. The Heisman hopeful was excommunicated, even barred from the NFL scouting combine.

And yet, the cycle begins anew. People make excuses for Mixon saying he made a horrible mistake at a young, unstable age (he was 19 at the time) and that he has been a boy scout ever since. But that would be wrong.

As much as people will make the case that it was, Mixon’s assault was not an isolated incident. He was also suspended a game for an altercation where Mixon was furious with a parking attendant, throwing the ticket in their face and threatening to run them over with his car. Mixon’s pattern of aggressive behavior should make him radioactive to NFL teams, and yet his talent on the field still makes him valuable, but not TOO valuable, and so begins again the dance of draft twitter.

As much as we like to celebrate redemption stories and second chances, life often shows us that repeat offenders will self implode.

Josh Gordon was dismissed from his program at Baylor for drugs and was selected in the supplemental draft because of his talent. After he burst onto the scene, he has failed multiple drug tests and has faded into obscurity.

Junior Galette was a dominant defensive end for the Saints before he assaulted a woman with a belt on a beach and was released and subsequently signed by the Redskins. Yesterday, Galette was arrested once again for aggressive behavior. Abusers will to often repeat these heinous crimes because they are creatures of habit. In the words of the now late Charlie Murphy, they are “Habitual line-steppers”

The point of all this is not to say we should not hand out second chances or believe in redemption. It is instead to research all the facts before making conclusions (the claims that Mixon has been a choir boy since the incident in 2014 are unfounded) and recognize self destructive behavior when we see it.