One of the main questions entering NFL Draft night was, what team would throw aside the fact that Joe Mixon punched a woman in 2014, and choose to draft the Oklahoma product because he’s a really good running back?
Well, it turns out that team is the Cincinnati Bengals, an organization known more than any other for having players with serious off-the-field and legal issues over the years. The Bengals selected Mixon in the second round with the 48th overall pick:
With the 48th selection in the 2017 NFL Draft, the #Bengals select RB Joe Mixon. pic.twitter.com/UM3b4HETdd
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) April 29, 2017
At No. 48, the #Bengals select #Oklahoma RB Joe Mixon. The landing spot everyone expected. This was approved by owner Mike Brown.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 29, 2017
The selection was met with plenty of boos from fans in attendance at the draft in Philadelphia:
And the ESPN2 broadcast of the draft even showed the video of Mixon punching Amelia Molitor in 2014.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that only four teams out of 32 said in an anonymous survey last week that they would consider drafting Mixon:
In an anonymous survey over past week with all 32 NFL teams, only four said they would consider drafting RB Joe Mixon. But only takes one.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 29, 2017
NFL.Com’s Ian Rapoport said that over half of NFL teams had Mixon off their board, but that many teams considered Mixon the top running back in the draft “if you consider only football”:
About half the teams had Joe Mixon off their board. Some evaluators believed he was the top RB overall if you consider only football.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 29, 2017
Well, we knew some team was going to consider only football, as our Adam Patrick recently explained:
If the question were simply whether or not Mixon should be selected by a team in this year’s draft, it may be much easier for every organization to say no. But since people’s jobs are on the line, coaches and general managers are going to literally do whatever it takes to lead their teams to success.
Even if that means drafting a man who has a video online with over one million views of him introducing his fist to a woman’s face. But hey, at least he did not smoke any of that wacky weed or deflate any footballs, right?
And it’s hardly surprising that team is the Cincinnati Bengals.
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