Mixon’s agent on controversy surrounding his client: ‘You can’t get too high or too low

Peter Schaeffer is taking it all in stride. The agent represents arguably the most controversial player in the NFL Draft, Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon, and understands that his client carries the baggage of striking a woman and knocking her down three years ago while he was college.

The incident was caught on camera and has prompted speculation Mixon will either be drafted lower than his talent warrants or not at all.

‘The fact that some mock draft has you in the first round or some mock draft has you in the second, you can’t worry about it’

Then came word this week that the father of a girl who attended high school with Mixon accused the running back of throwing his daughter to the ground and hitting her. The father has since recanted the accusation. For Schaeffer, it’s a matter of maintaining a sense of perspective, because such stories are going to circulate this close to the draft.

“Things fly the week before the draft and you can’t get too high or too low,” Schaeffer told Bruce Murray and Brady Quinn on the SiriusXM Blitz. “The fact that some mock draft has you in the first round or some mock draft has you in the second, you can’t worry about it. With these situations, you only hope that the media people that put them out there be professional and call you up and say, ‘OK, we have this allegation. Do you have a response?’ My big issue today was they put it out there without asking us for a response or the truth.”

‘There’s 32 teams with 32 different decision-making processes’

Asked if he has spoken with any team that doesn’t have Mixon on its draft board, Schaeffer said, “No.” Still, he acknowledges that he doesn’t know for certain why any team will do regarding his client.

“There’s 32 teams with 32 different decision-making processes and 32 different owners and 32 different people that are making the draft choices,” Schaeffer said. “So every team is going to be different and part of our job is just to make sure that everybody gets to truly know and understand what this young man is and what he’s going to be able to do on the field and what he’s going to do off the field and what he’s doing to make amends for a mistake that he made when he was 18 years old, three years ago. Shoot, we’re all pretty happy that there weren’t cell cameras when we were in college, that’s all I can say.”