Joe Mixon, not invited to this week's combine, expresses regret for punching a woman

One of the most controversial players in this year’s NFL draft won’t be at the scouting combine to explain himself.

Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, one of the most talented backs in this year’s draft, was not invited to the combine because of an incident in 2014 in which he was caught on tape punching a woman. It seems a little counter-intuitive for the NFL to not let players involved in legal troubles come to the combine – team interviews with prospects are a huge part of the combine, and teams would have more serious questions for Mixon than most other prospects – but still allow those same prospects to be in the draft. Teams who don’t automatically take Mixon off their boards will do their homework on Mixon in other ways though.

Mixon won’t be able to meet with the media at the combine but he did go on PFT Live and said he regrets what happened.

“I made a bad decision,” Mixon said. “Ever since that night I have to live with it. I’ve got to re-live it every day. You can never forget something like that. It still haunts me to this day, but it’s what you do from that point on. You can’t take it back. I can replay it in my head a thousand times, and if I could take it back I would, but I can’t.”

Each NFL team will have to figure out where it stands on Mixon. Some will say he shouldn’t play in the NFL and will not draft him (or, they just won’t want to deal with the PR mess from picking him). Others will say he should have a second chance – ABC/ESPN announcer Brent Musburger tried that during Oklahoma’s bowl game, and was widely criticized. The fact that Mixon’s act was caught on tape and similar incidents from other players weren’t on video shouldn’t be a factor, but it will be. Kansas City Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill pleaded guilty to abusing and strangling his pregnant girlfriend while in college, was kicked out of Oklahoma State, but was still drafted in the fifth round and had an excellent rookie season. His incident wasn’t caught on tape.

Mixon told PFT Live that he wants to educate young people so they don’t repeat his mistake, and hopefully he follows through on that and it’s not just an agent-suggested talking point leading up to the draft. It seems hard to believe that Mixon will fall out of the draft entirely, though surely some teams will not have him on their board. Hill’s success as a rookie will probably ensure that Mixon will get a second chance, too.

Mixon’s pre-draft work will have little to do with 40 times and bench press reps. He’ll have to convince teams that what he did in 2014 shouldn’t preclude him from being drafted.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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