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Santoliquito: Eagles Should Take A Look At Joe Mixon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The National Football League is a brutal, cold-hearted world. It's a world where winning and losing games impact people's lives. It's a place where good men, like the Eagles' Malcolm Jenkins, can compete against men who have dubious character like the Demetrius Harrises, Ethan Westbrooks, Trevone Boykins, Deiondre Halls and Makinton Dorleants of the world -- all NFL players arrested in March 2017.

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It's a place that allows college stars, like Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, a place to work and succeed.

Before we continue, no one is condoning Mixon's heinous act in 2014 -- when he punched a woman, Amelia Molitor, inside a Norman, Okla. bar, breaking four bones in her face. In the eyes of the law, Mixon accepted a plea bargain, was suspended from the football team that season and has moved on. He was also 17 when he did it -- enough to file his actions under the young-and-dumb bin.

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He has publicly apologized numerous times for what he did. He's had a recent episode in November of 2016, when he tore up a parking ticket and threatened to run over the meter maid that issued the ticket. Mixon was suspended a game for that episode.

But here's the harsh reality of the NFL: the Eagles need a player like Mixon to win.

Sure, he's no boy scout, but he is a 6-1, 227-pound 20-year-old running back forged in the same mold as Pittsburgh's Le'Veon Bell (who's had his own issues) and Arizona's David Johnson. He's an earth mover, and possibly better than any other running back the Eagles could get at 14, meaning Stanford's Christian McCaffrey and Florida State's Dalvin Cook.

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The NFL is littered with cases similar to Mixon's, including Kansas City Chiefs special teams returner Tyreek Hill (who admitted to strangling and beating his pregnant girlfriend), and a pair of current Eagles, wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham (who allegedly shoved his girlfriend's roommate down the stairs of their apartment) and defensive back Jalen Mills (arrested in May 2014 on a charge of second-degree battery, which was later reduced to simple battery, and dropped him to the seventh round, where the Eagles took him last year).

Again, there are no excuses for any man putting their hands on a woman -- or anyone for that matter. But you might not find more decent guys in the Eagles' locker room today, than Green-Beckham and the engaging, charismatic Mills.

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They deserved another chance and they have received it with the Eagles -- who also took a major chance when they signed Michael Vick, under Andy Reid.

A handful of teams are already talking to Mixon. He will get drafted by a team in the NFL. That's because the NFL is a ruthless place where the only thing that matters is winning and losing. The New England Patriots have stated that they would not be interested in acquiring Mixon, but they also have to take a long look at themselves after drafting convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez.

If the Eagles draft Mixon, will they be taking a chance? Of course they will. But sometimes risk and thinking outside-the-box does pay dividends. A locker room full of angels doesn't exist in the NFL, and quite frankly, they rarely win.

Mixon deserves a chance.

 

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