The Seattle Seahawks have released backup quarterback Trevone Boykin in the wake of a report that he's under investigation for alleged domestic violence.
The Seahawks announced Boykin's release Tuesday morning. The move came less than two hours after WFAA-TV in Dallas reported on its website that police in Mansfield, Texas, are investigating Boykin after allegations from his girlfriend, Shabrika Bailey.
Bailey told WFAA that Boykin attempted to choke her and broke her jaw in two places during an incident that occurred at his home last week. She said she blacked out while Boykin was attempting to choke her and then came to in a "puddle of blood on the kitchen floor."
Bailey said Boykin drove her to Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, Texas, and that he fled when hospital staff began questioning the two separately. The woman was airlifted to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas for further treatment because she was having trouble breathing and spent three days there, according to the report.
In a statement released to NFL Network, Boykin called Bailey's allegations "false."
"I understand the Seahawks' decision to release me. The story that was reported casts a bad light on the organization and on me. I want to be clear that the story is false. The police have taken statements from the accuser, another witness and me. All of these statements confirm that I was not involved in the physical altercation. This woman has lied about me and it has cost me my job. I know guilt by association is real. This person has fabricated a story and I am suffering the consequences. I will let the legal system run its course and I know I will be vindicated," he said.
Bailey told WFAA that she and Boykin have been in a relationship since high school and that their argument last week started when she refused to show Boykin a text message that he wanted to see on her phone.
Detectives from the Mansfield Police Department told WFAA after interviewing Bailey and her brother that Boykin was under investigation, according to the report.
Boykin, 24, has spent his first two NFL seasons with the Seahawks after they signed him as an undrafted free agent out of TCU in 2016. He backed up Russell Wilson as a rookie, then spent last year on the Seahawks' practice squad. They signed him to a future's deal at season's end.
His release leaves Wilson as the only quarterback Seattle has under contract. Last year's backup, Austin Davis, is still unsigned.
Boykin was arrested a year ago Tuesday on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication and marijuana possession after a car he was riding in drove onto a sidewalk and crashed into a Dallas bar, injuring eight people.
That incident triggered another arrest a week later because Boykin had been on probation stemming from a 2015 arrest, when he was a senior at TCU and allegedly struck a police officer at a bar in San Antonio two days before the Horned Frogs were set to play in the Alamo Bowl. Boykin pleaded no contest to resisting arrest and received a year of probation.
The marijuana charge was recently dismissed.
Bailey told WFAA that she was driving the car that Boykin was riding in during the Dallas incident and that the car crashed because Boykin was attacking her. She said she covered for Boykin, calling it an accident at his request, and that Boykin asked her to explain her recent injuries by saying she either fell or got jumped by another person.