Woman Punched By Joe Mixon: "Almost Immediately, I Was Made To Feel Like It Was My Fault"

Amelia Molitor was just another college student at Oklahoma—until Sooners running back Joe Mixon punched her in the face at sub shop Pickleman’s Gourmet Café *, fracturing multiple bones in her face and requiring surgery that left her jaw wired shut. Afterward, she told the Oklahoman that she worried about retaliation from fans.

“That’s my big fear (the fans),” Molitor said at the time. “I’ve been told to stay off of social media to avoid (OU fans) coming after me on there.”

Nearly two years later, Molitor talked to the paper again and gave an interview that largely proves her own fears came true. She deleted her Twitter and Facebook accounts. A mug shot from a previous misdemeanor drug arrest got passed around the Internet, while Mixon’s lawyer tried to turn her past into proof that she was was “ troubled.” When she returned to campus, she heard people snickering at her. At her bartending job, a patron leaned over and asked her, “How’s Joe doing?”

In the interview, Molitor details her physical recovery. She needed an eight-hour surgery that left her looking “like Cyclops for a few weeks.” She lost feeling on the left side of her face for six months and was on a liquid diet. But all that was manageable, she said, compared to the emotional pain.

“Sitting here, dealing with an extremely traumatic injury, having my name dragged through the mud,” Molitor said. “The physical part was manageable for me. All the rest seemed unbearable. Almost immediately, I was made to feel like it was my fault. When you’re at such a vulnerable point, you tend to believe it.”

Her family and lawyers told her to transfer out of Oklahoma, but she refused, telling the Oklahoman: “I came here for a reason. I had a goal. I’m not a quitter.” She plans to graduate in December with a dual degree in philosophy/human relations.

Molitor doesn’t speak about what happened that night at the sub shop, per the advice of her lawyers. Her lawyers have filed a motion to enter the ongoing lawsuit between the city of Norman and the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters over the surveillance video Mixon punching her. The OAB has been fighting to make the video public; Molitor spoke in part to possibly stop the push to get the video released.

Molitor still consider herself a Sooners football fan, and she said two football players she knew were supportive of her. But she hasn’t been to a game since all this began. The whole interview is well worth your time over at the .