Alabama’s Jermaine Burton Addresses Incident With Woman at Tennessee

Alabama wide receiver Jermaine Burton spoke Saturday for the first time publicly about an October incident in which a video showed him striking a woman after his team’s upset loss to Tennessee. 

“That whole situation, it was a mistake,” Burton said after Alabama’s Sugar Bowl win over Kansas State, per the Knoxville News Sentinel. “I can’t hold that against myself forever. But a mistake is a mistake. You move past it. I’m not going to let situation frame me as a person or shape me as a person because I know who I am, and my team knows who I am.”

Volunteers fans stormed the field after Tennessee’s 52-49 win over Alabama on Oct. 15, and a TikTok video showed Burton in his No. 3 jersey hit a woman in the head after she moved out of the way as he was coming toward her. 

After the video circulated, Alabama coach Nick Saban said, “We are currently working to gather more information.”

It’s unclear whether Burton ever was punished. He played in Alabama’s subsequent game and was never charged with a crime.