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Sports

Joe Mixon Publicly Apologizes for Punching Woman in the Face

Oklahoma made Mixon available on the Friday afternoon before Christmas.

In his first public appearance—not so surprisingly on the Friday afternoon before Christmas—since his legal team released the surveillance video of him punching Amelia Molitor in the face, Joe Mixon apologized to Molitor, the University of Oklahoma, Sooners head coach Bob Stoops, his teammates, and his mother. Mixon gave a brief opening statement and then stayed to answer questions from the assembled media, at times appearing upset and ashamed, particularly when speaking about his mother, while also seeming kind of frustrated to be still talking about this.

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"I'm here for a situation that occurred about two and a half years ago, um, basically I'm just here to basically apologize to Ms. Molitor, uh, like I said I'm here to apologize to Ms. Molitor, Coach Stoops, I apologize to President Boren, the AD, my teammates. Most of all, my family. I let a lot of people down. I apologize to my mother."

He mentioned the two and a half years a few times in his comments, and also said that the incident "haunted" him and that he still dreams about it to this day. At one point a reporter asked Mixon if he thought Molitor owed him an apology, but he sidestepped that potential land mine, saying he was there to talk about himself. Later, he added,

"Honestly, it really don't matter what she did that night. It's all on me," Mixon said. "The reason why I'm in this position right now. I take full responsibility on what happened that night. It's never OK to hit a woman. Never. I will preach that to anybody. It's never OK, and hopefully people around the world can learn from my mistake and I'm willing to teach."

As for why he never publicly apologized before, Mixon said he was told by legal representatives to keep quiet on the matter.

[ESPN]