Senior Mississippi State running back Anthony Dixon was arrested in Starkville Saturday night and has been charged with refusing to submit to a field sobriety test, careless driving and failure to present proof of car insurance.
In an account of the Starkville Police Department’s incident report published by Kyle Veazey, MSU athletics writer for The Clarion-Ledger, a SPD officer pulled over Dixon’s silver Chevrolet Impala at the corner of Hogan and Montgomery streets.
The officer reported Dixon was driving erratically down Main Street before turning onto North Montgomery where he was pulled over by the officer.
In the report the officer said, “Upon walking to the car I noticed that Mr. Dixon’s speech was slurred and his eyes were blood shot.”
The officer also stated seeing two champagne bottles laying in plain view in Dixon’s vehicle.
Dixon was taken into custody and brought to the Starkville Police Department for refusing to submit to a field sobriety test. He also refused a blood alcohol breath test at the police department.
Recently named to the preseason all-SEC football team, Dixon is considered one of the top players on the MSU football team. This incident comes only weeks before the start of preseason football practice on Aug. 3.
Dixon apologized for the incident in a statement released Monday afternoon by the MSU athletic department.
“I sincerely apologize to not only my coaches and teammates, but also to all of the Mississippi State fans that I’ve let down by my poor decisions,” he said. “I will accept whatever punishment coach Mullen decides and hope I can move forward and prepare to help this team.”
A comment on the incident from head football coach Dan Mullen was simultaneously released. In it, Mullen expressed his extreme disappointment in Dixon’s “selfish decisions on Saturday night that led to his arrest.”
Mullen said, “This is a topic that we’ve discussed with our team several times; and we expect each of our student-athletes to not put themselves in this position.”
He said Dixon’s punishment would be appropriate and would be dealt with inside the football program.
“We’ll continue to work with law enforcement while educating our players about these matters,” Mullen said.
Mullen released similar statements on his account at the popular social-networking Web site twitter.com.