Former Florida State University quarterback De’Andre Johnson said that he “totally should have walked away” from an altercation in a Tallahassee bar that ended up getting him kicked off the football team.
In a video that made headlines around the country, Johnson can be seen punching a woman. He was later charged with misdemeanor battery because of his actions, though he has pleaded not guilty.
“I totally should have walked away. I’m sorry. I apologize to the lady in the incident, to her family … to my mother,” Johnson said during an interview with ABC’s Michael Strahan. “I know I wasn’t raised that way.”
He also shot down any speculation about what might have “caused” the punch or what, if anything, the woman might have done to provoke him.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is that I shouldn’t have raised my hand to her. I should have walked away.”
His mother, Pamela Jones, also opened up about her disappointment in the news that her son had been involved in a fight, saying that she cried “for three days.”
“I still cry, ’cause I don’t teach my kids to raise their hand … and for this to happen, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Jones said.
Although Johnson is forbidden from having contact with the woman he punched, he had a message for her: “I would like to say to her and her family that I am … severely sorry. No words can describe this feeling.”
