Alabama’s Tony Mitchell returns to football team activities

By WVUA 23 Sports Reporter Alex Boothe

Freshman defensive back Tony Mitchell was reinstated to the Alabama football team, his father Tony Mitchell Sr. announced Thursday on his Facebook page.

Mitchell had been suspended indefinitely in March after a traffic stop arrest in Florida. Mitchell received three years’ probation and was sentenced to one hundred hours of community service after pleading ‘no-contest’ to a felony possession of marijuana charge.

Mitchell was ranked as the nations No. 10 safety and No. 12 overall player in the state of Alabama coming out of the 2023 class.

Former Alabama two-sport athlete Donnie Lee Jr. has helped Mitchell with workouts the past two months. He operates The Lab training facility in Tuscaloosa. Lee says Mitchell has shown remorse after his arrest and believes he has put in the work, both training and therapy, to earn a spot back with the team.

“One of my favorite Saban-isms is a mistake made more than once is a decision. That’s one of the things that I use as affirmation with my daughter literally on a daily basis,” Lee told WVUA-23. “It’s okay to make a mistake once. We have all made mistakes. The most important thing and the most determining factor after a person makes a mistake is not only do they learn from that mistake, but do they also teach from that mistake. That is already something that Tony has begun to do during his time at The Lab over the last two months while he has been training — focusing on what he can control. Controlling what he can control and leaving the rest to God.”