Why did Texans running back Joe Mixon hit out at his former team the Bengals?

The NFL can be a cruel place when it comes to the business side of things. With players cut and shifted constantly, the concept of loyalty can often fall by the wayside. That said, it is the nature of a game in which the stakes are extremely high. Though one can sympathize with players who find themselves on the wrong side of that, it’s unfortunately the way the cookie crumbles.

Joe Mixon has no love for the Bengals

This past Sunday saw the Cincinnati Bengals take on the New England Patriots, while the Indianapolis Colts hosted the Houston Texans. The former, a game featuring a team that is expected to be a contender playing against a team that’s beginning a rebuild. The latter was a toss-up between two teams that are trying to improve. In the end, we got an upset as the Bengals fell to the Patriots’ brutal defense 16-10 and at Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis, we got an entertaining contest that saw the Texans just clinch a 29-27 win.

As you can probably guess, the Bengals weren’t too happy about that loss with wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase giving a rather frank response when asked post game about why he wasn’t targeted more. Nonetheless, there was one former Bengals player who saw things a little differently. One could even say he was happy about the result, a notion likely helped by the fact that he now plays for the above-mentioned Texans who got the win. Indeed, speaking with the media on Sunday, former Bengals running back Joe Mixon made it clear that he has no interest in playing his former team this year as he seeks to forget all about them.

“I just wanna leave them where they’re at,” Mixon said, “just like [how] they left me.” Do recall that Mixon was offloaded by Cincinnati back in March following a lengthy period of speculation surrounding his contract and the possible restructuring of it. By the looks of things, the situation did not have a damaging effect on Mixon at all as he made an impressive debut for his new team on Sunday, notching 159 rushing yards and his 50th career touchdown on 30 carries in the win over the Colts.

Interestingly, Mixon didn’t stop there with his comments either as he went on to declare that he believes he has found an even better team. For context, the Bengals come into this season as one of the major contenders for the Super Bowl. The Texans do not. “Yeah, no doubt,” Mixon said. “I definitely did, man, and ...I feel great to be appreciated here and to play a big part in what we do. I’m [going to] just do whatever is asked of me as a player. ... You know, be the best teammate and leader that I know how to be. I’m just happy that I’m on this side now.”