The video does show she swings first, but IMO, she was doing so because he grabbed her wrists after she confronted him for pushing his way up front. Then she swung to defend herself from his grip.

He's been dismissed from the team.

I have no real opinion on this but it looked like he grabbed her wrist because he noticed that fist was clenched raring to go. Oddly enough, she then clenched her other free hand and swung.

I've never been punched in the face. If I got punched in the face I don't know how I'd react in the heat of the moment.

I don't condone hitting anybody, but she was way out of line.

I guess I saw it differently, to me she didn't make an aggressive fist, but made a fist with her thumb out, pointing like saying "I have been here waiting on that bartender, wait your turn, get in line behind everyone else waiting."

I'm not sure here as the video has some questionable footage on who the aggressor was.

In any case, you just can't hit a female unless your life is threatened, and that situation didn't seem life threatening. Football career = over

I grew up in a place and time where hitting a girl was a no no. And if a girl hit you, you just kind of laughed it off because you know that she couldn't hurt you the way you could her. You control the urge to strike back because of that knowledge.

Women should not hit men. But what happened to this basic knowledge over the years?

Anyone that says this guy was actually defending himself by hitting this woman like this is nuts.

I don't think anyone has.

He wasn't defending himself. He was reacting. His reaction was bad. Her immediate outrage at him for trying to go up to the empty spot at the bar was way out of line. You don't swing at someone. She was not defending herself. He was not defending himself.

I don't know if it was a factor, but this happened a week after the Charleston shooting. White people's perception of black people was on the minds of a lot of black people at the time. Her turning around and screaming at him out of the blue, then on top of it swinging at him does not show a lot of respect for another person.

If a strange woman were to hit me, for whatever reason, I'm calling the cops to have her arrested. And I'd probably sue her.

I wouldn't swing back no matter what.

I think she was a little PO'ed that he shoved his way into her space.

I'm also a little perplexed that nobody here is questioning that a 19 year old is in a crowded bar ordering drinks.

Exactly. I recall an altercation in my younger days with an ex and the day I was trying to pack up my stuff and move out.

She was off the chain so to say, breaking my items,ripping open boxes and dumping my stuff out, throwing items outside into the snow and she was swinging.

Crazy Ness, but even in the mist of it all, swinging back or ringing her bell never was even considered. The police came and the instant they pulled in, her attitude changed and the entire situation changed and for the good.

It happens, it sucks but... it was the right thing to do.

This kid learned,well hopefully anyway, his lesson the hard way.

Unless you're getting the crap beat out of you, and your life is in danger, I don't think there is ever any real justification for hitting a woman.

Being an FSU athlete though, I'm sure he won't get in any trouble, and he'll end up back on the team starting....

But some are insinuating she caused her problems by taking the lame swing, when in reality a 19 year old under age in a crowded bar shoves his way up to the bar to order drinks and is then shoved back into his place. He then halls off and smacks the snot out of the women.

He's already been kicked off the team.

The Seminoles made the announcement with the following statement:

Florida State head football coach Jimbo Fisher announced Monday evening that freshman De'Andre Johnson has been dismissed from the football team effective immediately. Johnson was indefinitely suspended on June 25 following initial reports of an incident that occurred off campus and resulted in a criminal charge.

Exactly, both sides are of equal blame here...that girl should not have clenched her fist and took a swing at him, and he shouldn't have unloaded a punch on her.

Charges should be dropped, both parties are equally negligent and moronic, and thats that.

Chalk it up as a lesson learned,

For her, you don't want to get punched in the face, then don't try to punch someone in the face.

For him, you don't want someone trying to hit you, then don't be a jerk at the bar.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...rks-lawyer-says

Former Florida State quarterback De'Andre Johnson's attorney, Jose Baez, told NBC News on Tuesday that his 19-year-old client punched a woman in the face after she called him racial epithets and provoked him.

Johnson, a redshirt freshman from Jacksonville, Florida, was dismissed from FSU's team by coach Jimbo Fisher on Monday night, hours after the state's attorney's office released surveillance video of him striking the 21-year-old woman in a Tallahassee, Florida, bar on June 24.

Johnson, who was named "Mr. Football" in Florida as a senior at First Coast High School in 2014, is charged with misdemeanor battery. Baez entered a written not guilty plea on his client's behalf on July 2. Johnson is scheduled to appear at a case management hearing in Leon County Court on July 22.

Appearing on NBC's "Today" show Tuesday, Baez said Johnson was not the initial aggressor, but is "owning this" and trying to learn from the experience.

Baez said the woman raised her fist and shouted "racial epithets" at Johnson after he accidentally made contact with her while they waited to order at the bar.

Baez said Johnson tried to "de-escalate the situation," but the woman "kneed him in the groin area" and "took another swing before he retaliated."

"It wasn't until she struck him twice that he reacted," Baez told NBC. "But he is very ... he is very regretful that he didn't turn around and walk away immediately."

The video, which was captured by security cameras in a bar near the FSU campus, shows Johnson trying to push past the woman, who was waiting to order at the bar. The woman turned toward Johnson, who grabbed her right arm after she raised it in a fist. The woman raised her knee and swung at Johnson with her left arm, and then he punched her in the face.

According to the Tallahassee Police Department incident report, the woman, an FSU student, suffered bruising near her left eye, swelling of the left cheek and upper lip, and a small cut near the bridge of her nose.

State's attorney Willie Meggs, who decided to charge Johnson after seeing video of the incident, said the woman still had a black eye when he met with her last week.

"He makes no excuses for what happened," Baez told NBC. Baez called Johnson's dismissal from the football team "unfortunate." "All he wants to do is learn from this experience and move on and get an education. We certainly don't want him to pay for the rest of his life for an incident that occurred in a bar."

Baez, who defended Casey Anthony in her murder trial in Orlando in 2011 -- the Florida mother was found not guilty of first-degree murder in the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter -- hasn't responded to interview requests from ESPN.

Meanwhile, a source told ESPN.com on Tuesday that FSU officials hadn't seen video of Johnson punching the woman until the video was published on the Tallahassee Democrat website Monday. The source said Fisher didn't see the video until Monday night -- shortly before he dismissed Johnson from the team -- because he was vacationing in a remote area of West Virginia.

Florida State president John Thrasher, in a statement released Tuesday, said he fully supported the actions Fisher took to suspend and then dismiss Johnson from the program.

"While it is always important to adhere to due process, having now seen the physical altercation captured on video, there is no question in my mind that Coach Fisher made the correct decisions," Thrasher said. "I expect all students at Florida State University, including student-athletes, to adhere to the highest level of conduct. I have no tolerance for the kind of behavior exhibited in this case.

"Florida State University was forged from an outstanding college for women and has a long tradition of being a caring community that demands students be treated with dignity and respect."

Former Florida State cornerback Ronald Darby, now a member of the Buffalo Bills, took to Twitter on Tuesday to question why the woman hasn't faced consequences for her role in the incident.

One his tweets said "People saying its a bad tweet for saying something should be done both ways ? I'm confused . If that was tall kid or loved one then what"

The series of tweets was later deleted.

Heisman!

I looked at the video again, and agree she makes a fist, so I looked again. And notice she spins around mad right off the bat, and says something to him. Is it possible he snuck in for a cheap feel?

LOL....Jose Baez. I thought he would've retired off of the money he made off of the Casey Anthony trial.

So maybe there was some racial intervention here, but still, just cannot swing on a female. Being called names is not a life or death threatening.

But if true, the female may not be as much a poor, innocent victim as initially perhaps perceived.

I felt this way the minute she threw the first punch.....

UMMMM, he wasn't even looking in her direction the start.
In a crowded bar someone bumping into you can cause you to bump into another. It looks as if she overreacted to the bump. He got the punishment he deserved but what was her punishment for her actions . clearly a double standard here.

I grew up in the world where you were taught the rule to never to hit a women. Made sense to me.

Then you have the woman's movement with equal rights. (I agree with this)

Earn the same money. (I agree with this)

Women in the military. (with everything else, why not)

Women in combat. (still have a hard time with this one)

If she picks the fight and throws the first punch does this rule still hold true? I mean, don't they want to be treated equally if they start throwing?

As with a lot of views, this one also changed over the years and with the evolving times. Women are no longer innocent, reserved, and petite little things like they used to be. A lot of them are now much larger, stronger, know how to fight, and you never know what kind of weapon they may be carrying. I was raised to never let ANYBODY hurt me. I find it senseless to let another person beat on you in an attempt to show chivalry based on their gender. If someone hits me in the face, they need to be prepared to be hit back. That should be perceived as basic knowledge at this point. The world is more violent now than before, it's probably time to evolve your views with it or at least not look down on others who handle harm being inflicted upon them differently than you.

I agree women have changed physically and their equality has expanded, so yes, it might be time to realign the idea that all women should never be touched in any situation. With that being said, it would have to take a lot for me to raise my fist to a woman. I'd have to feel like she was about to put me in the hospital or she was trying to kill me.

However, the idea that the world today is more violent than ever before, I don't believe that. I can't make a case that the world was more violent 25, 250, or 2500 years ago, but I'd probably be able to argue it's just as violent. People have been beating & killing each other for as long as we've walked this planet. I don't think it's increased.

We're more aware, news just gets out faster and much more often than it used to.

I like the general consesus of these posts.

On the local news here in CT the video clip was obviously professionally prepared for maximum effect.

For instance, it's cut-off and zoomed-in right as her head turned making it look like she just took a hay-maker.

Afterwards,

"She remained at the bar."

Whatever the girl did, "maybe" one half hearted love tap...she did not deserve what she got in return.

The guy is a "punk"...no other way to say it.

To unload on the girl the way he did, something wrong in that punk's head...I would kick him off my football team in a heartbeat.

She needs to own some of the responsibility.. (I've seen a version of this that goes back a few more seconds, she nudges up to the bar first, before he does) She raises her hand into an aggressive position first, he grabs the hand, she smacks him with the other hand, then he hits her.. neither side behaved well here.


I don't know if you've ever been in a crowded college bar... but this kind of jockeying and bumping and nudging is common, happens all the time to everybody, she handled it very poorly. the nudge she got was mild, I'll bet she got nudged like that 100 times that night, but in this one she reacted.. And I LOL every time I see somebody comment that we should be concerned that an under aged 19 year old was in a college bar.. really?


You left out a couple steps.

In the end, he will pay a much steeper price than she will...

I'm impressed that he is owning the situation and taking responsibility rather than trying to BS his way out of it as we see so many high profile figures do. A sign of maturity is that when a mistake is made, you admit it, then take your medicine and learn from it. That sounds exactly like what this kid is doing (provided the limited information we have).

Gee, never saw the racial excuse coming.

Just watched the video. Are you kidding me? People like Memphis are actually defending Johnson?

Wow!

Oh bull. He's what, 6'1" 200 lbs and in a college football weightlifting program? If he unloaded on her then FSU's strength coach should be fired. Not only didn't she go down, she didn't even wobble.. she didn't even leave the freakin' bar. They were both love taps.

Suspend him a few games, make him take some counseling, but to potentially ruin a kids career at 19 over 2 seconds of poor judgement where nobody even got hurt just seems a bit extreme to me.

The girl is a scumbag for calling him that, but you gotta walk away man.

No excuse for it.

She threw the first punch, why is this not self defense?

That was no punch. Sheesh.

Where did I defend him or are you just trying to make stuff up again to stir the pot?

How are we to interpret your first post, which was the very first reply to the article?

I'll ask you to turn on your self proclaimed reading comprehension skills and bear with me....

= I have no real opinion on this.

= Addressing his decision making process for doing what he did. I do not believe I condoned this action but was trying to break down the video from what I saw as I was one of the first posters to comment on this thread.

Then there is a comment from a poster suggesting not understanding defending the FSU player. My response..."I don't think anyone is." Anyone includes me.

My third post addresses the innocence of the female where I disagree and suggested her negative role from the beginning. However, it does not acquit the FSU player for his actions either.

Are there any other questions?

Yes, why are you blaming the woman and defending the guy who hit her?

[quote=Versatile Dog]Yes, why are you blaming the woman and defending the guy who hit her? [/quote}

Oh. I see. You're just trolling again. Have fun with that.

That was my first thought as well. She spun around like someone grabbed her butt. Of course that isnt seen in the frame and is speculation

Because he was restraining her, and pretty aggressively at that. That was out of line on his part.

Yeah she raised her fist but it was pretty lame and we don't know what happened before the video (read: I don't really know what to make of it.)

How do we even know what she said? Johnson's lawyer said it. I obviously have no idea how things went down but it's predictable for his lawyer to downplay/justify his client's behavior as much as possible.

The way she wheeled around when he was still behind her made me think he had made contact with her backside, and her belligerent affect made me think it was an ass grab. It also appeared that they either knew each other, or maybe had had some kind of negative encounter earlier in the evening. When he grabbed her clenched fist, it looks like he might also have grabbed a hank of her hair. When he pushed her back with his right forearm, she (rightfully, imo) tried to defend herself with a really weak, pawing left jab that grazed him. He responded with a roundhouse right that could have broken her jaw. It was punk move. We don't hit women, DeAndre. Hope they throw the book at him.

pretty much how I saw it too... and yet we have some blaming the victim and what a surprise to bring out the racial slur card.... that no one can disprove... classic.

As if being called a name makes it ok to grab ,push and punch a woman... I notice he disappeared too...

Look the guy was wrong, wrong, wrong, with what he did, But she was not blame less in the whole thing. She should have never taken the first swing and he should have walked away from her.

I see two drunk people. My thoughts: He was trying to get in line for a drink, she playfully said something to the tune of "Hey man, I'm next". He was drunk and didn't laugh it off and wait his turn, instead he felt threatened and grabbed her fist. Perhaps she then felt threatened and has been listening to too many Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson songs, and in her drunken state of mind, tried punching him - thinking she would hurt him or he would walk away. - Neither happened and because he was drunk also and probably has a few older sisters that have beaten him up plenty of times, he cracked her in the face. She was lucky this was in a bar because she would not have stood a chance against this guy. Both people were drunk, and both people acted like idiots. However, she clearly swung first and hopefully learned a lesson.

I'd suspend him for six games, again because she swung first. I'd tell him that anymore alcohol related infractions will result from dismissal from the team.

Man, that is a lot of speculating.

Because she had at least an equal part in the verbal altercation, she got out of her seat and got in his face, she raised her fist first, she swung first.

I'm all for chivalry but if you want me to treat you like a lady... then act like one.

And if you are a man, act like one. No reason whatsoever to punch her in the face. ZERO!!!

I agree for the most part... I said in my very first post, and will stand by it, neither side was right in this encounter or handled it well... so if somebody calls out one side and gives the appearance the other side was not a contributor, then I'm going to point that out.

I can agree with you that both sides hold some responsibility.
But I want to touch on something that you said earlier, and that others seem to use as the "She deserved it" PoV.



She may have raised her hand in what appeared as an aggressive position, BUT he did make first physical interaction by grabbing her wrists.

I don't care who they are or what they think I am doing, if they grab me and try to restrain me, they better count on me taking a swing, or whatever, to free/defend myself.

Someone making a fist does not give anyone else the right to restrain someone.

Then again, by raising her hand and clinching a fist, he had a reasonable expectation she was going to strike him. That was obviously what he thought since he did grab her hand to prevent that from happening. The first aggressive move was hers, not his, unless you go with the grabbed her butt theory which isn't visible.

I guess you never watched cops or Jail. You made a fist and they are taking you down HARD.

Yep! Any sign of aggression won't be tolerated. And if you spit, it's almost even worse.

True, signs of aggression against authority, don't usually end up well for the aggressor.

As a guy, I have had an encounter with an angry woman who made a fist at me. I did not grab her, I just put my hand up to defend if she threw the punch.

I should have slugged her though, B was in the express lane with 30 items, and having to remove items from the total because she didn't have enough money on her card.

So if you are in a verbal altercation with somebody and they raise their fist in an aggressive fashion and it's crowded so it's not easy to just walk away, you would just stand there until they hit you before you did anything?

I've been in this discussion before on this board, maybe not with you personally, but it has seemed to me that when a bigger male athlete hits a woman who was being aggressive (as was the case with Ray Rice) one of the first things many of the guys on here say is... wait for it... WHY DIDN'T HE JUST RESTRAIN HER?

I did say put my hands up to defend. If we are in a position where you can't walk away, she isn't going to get much power into a punch even if it did land.

Even so, a simple "Oh I'm sorry" after bumping into someone, does a hell of a lot to diffuse a situation.



As far as the Rice thing, I think the scenario was she WAS hitting him, he SHOULD have restrained her at that point to protect himself, not hit her.

I was raised to believe hitting a woman is NEVER an option.

Short of fearing for your life, you just don't hit a woman.

Queue up the "What if she was hitting you with a baseball bat, while you were tied up, covered in tar and lit on fire" extreme scenarios.

I hope it was an aluminum bat. I'd hate to see her ruin a perfectly good wood bat via fire.

Actually by court of Law he was the aggressor - He got into her space he physically shoved her with his right arm making her turn around and like a dumb ass she got all I don't know what but not Lady like. Now that punch he took wouldn't have hurt Pee Wee Herman. Only a coward would hit a woman. He was clearly the dick not looking for a fight but he shoved her...she over reacted he could have defused it by saying he was sorry who knows what he said - She did not act like a lady for sure. Possibly a slap in the face back...not a freaking cold cock on a drunken lady no less. Maybe she lost a tooth or two in the process also.

jmho

Eo, I just disagree with your assessment. Here is the video I mentioned earlier that has a lot more of the lead up... as I see it

Web Link

- They get to the open spot at the bar at the same time, she's ahead of him by a little bit.
- He appears to be polite to the other woman as he tries to get to the bar.
- This woman turns over her shoulder and says something that appears to be sarcastic or derogatory.
- She is pushing back against him to prevent him from getting to the bar.
- His hands are both under the bar when she turns and gets in his face
- Then she raises her hand like she's going to hit him.....


So look, I still maintain that he's wrong for hitting her, but just about everything else, the mouthing off, the physical threat, and the confrontation... she kept escalating it.

As far as this goes, I honestly don't see him being impolite.... I sure would love to know what was being said, that would go a long way in helping me reach a more definitive conclusion.

I really think you should watch the video again. She was no threat. She had her fist up, but hooking her thumb, as in ...I was here first. He grabbed her wrists, she resisted weakly, he then launched a right cross into her face.

He's a freaking punk!

I've watched the video multiple times, slowed it down, watched it again... I'm pretty comfortable with what I saw. If that's not how you see it, that's cool.


Which part is her hitting him? Hooking the thumb or resisted weakly?


Maybe, and she's a total bitch.

All I know is that if I were in that situation, there would be no way I throw a punch like that.

We can agree to disagree on this one.

You and me both buddy... The fact that people support the 21-year-old drinking limit is insane, let alone the fact they think someone that age will follow it...

We don't really have to disagree as I probably wouldn't have thrown it either.... I've just been making the point that it's not like he hit a totally innocent little girl.. she was involved, she was provoking.. and she hit him first.

I would add that I probably would not have found myself in that situation, over my college career I was in similar bars probably thousands of times and never once got into an altercation like that with a girl or a guy... and yes I got bumped into, I bumped into others, a beer might have been spilled, once in a while a rude comment was made, but I was always able to ignore it, or apologize, or walk away, or, if I was the guy that spilled another guys beer, buy him another one.... in this situation, one or the other (but probably both) took a normal every day occurrence in a bar and, rather than let it die, they escalated it.... one of them needed to just turn around and let it go... and if you are the guy with a football career on the line, he needs to know that.

JMHO, from real old school guy, use to be upper 1/3 or half of HS graduates went to college, our societies wiser/smarter half...it says something when society expects people to break the law...nobody follows them right...as parent, do you really want your 19yr old in a packed bar...equality, she deserved it...she FOR SURE screwed up, but if that was your sister, daughter, does what he did not make your blood boil...and media pays its part by cutting to his "unprovoked punch" and lawyers get involved- he's doing charity work,etc.,etc...he shouldn't have been in bar, he shouldn't have been ordering drinks and pushing his way up AND race did play a factor, cuz he's black and she's white....hope he gets another chance, but probably won't be at FSU cuz they have damage control to do over their just departed Heisman winner- a reflection of the best in our society....like Bill Crosby.....GO Browns!!!!