Tyreek Hill has definitely created a name for himself as a receiving threat in Kansas City, but previous legal issues, though never convicted, still paint him in an unpleasant light with the media and the general public.
Seven catches for 203 yards and two touchdowns. Those are amazing stats for any receiver in any game. Those were also Tyreek Hill’s stats in the first quarter against the Buccaneers on Sunday. After a couple of three-and-outs by both teams, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes unleashed a 75-yard touchdown bomb to a sprinting Tyreek Hill to give Kansas City a 10-point lead.
After another Buccaneer three-and-out, Tyreek did it again. This time it was a 44-yard strike that ended in the speedy receiver doing a back flip into the endzone.
Hill would end up getting another one in the third quarter and would end his day with 13 receptions, 269 yards, and three touchdowns. The Chiefs would go on to beat the Buccaneers by a score of 27-24 and all the media could talk about was how dominant the Chiefs’ star receiver was. However, some people in the media felt that they were unable to give Hill any praise because of his past.
NBC Sports has a podcast called Brother From Another with former SportsCenter host Michael Smith and former Boston Globe columnist Michael Holley. Holley brought up why it is difficult to support the Chiefs wide receiver. Without bringing up any facts from the legal cases that Hill was involved in, they made assumptions about his character and what type of person he is. There was nothing about how the charges were dropped in the child abuse case back in July of 2019. There was nothing about Hill retaining custody of his children.
They compared Hill’s situation to that of Adrian Peterson’s, who beat his kids with a switch. NBC Sports obviously viewed the video as irresponsible journalism by both Smith and Holley, and they pulled the clip from their site. There was also no mention by Smith or Holley about the audiotape released on 610 Sports’ The Drive with Carrington Harrison that has Hill denying any wrongdoing in a previous domestic violence case that he plead guilty to in 2014. That’s the same guilty plea that got him kicked off of the Oklahoma State football team and resulted in his draft stock plummeting.
“You f–king ruined my life and you lied on me in 2014. I’m still not over that. I didn’t touch you in 2014. You lied on me in 2014. If you want to rewind that night, we can rewind that night, too. You was in my house. And did I pick you up and slam you? Hell no. I picked you up and put you out.”
– Tyreek Hill to then-fiancée Crystal Espinal in the full-version of the audiotape
Per a report on medium.com, Hill took a plea deal in that case because he could not afford the lawyer fees of his first attorney and was subjected to a public defender. It was either take a plea deal and possibly play football again or keep fighting and possibly end up with a jail sentence. Hill took the plea deal his charges were eventually expunged in 2018.
This portion of the audio conversation between Hill and Espinal was not in the first version that was released by KCTV’s Investigative reporter Angie Ricono. She tweeted out that she only released the parts that were deemed “newsworthy”. Most of the attention of that version was surrounded by a derogatory remark Hill said towards his then-fiancée Crystal Espinal, which is where most national media personalities felt Hill should be punished. How could the information about the 2014 case not be deemed “newsworthy”? This is the first time that we had heard Hill’s side of that story in 2014 and if it was true, it painted a whole new light into any future accusations against Hill from his former fiancée.
All of this information requires a little bit of reading and not just reading the headlines. That is something that everyone should do before passing judgment. However, there are several people that like to take their “unbiased” opinion that they based off of one headline, and without doing any further research, take it to social media.
Like this guy:
This is George Black. He has a photo of Tom Brady in his bio, but I’m sure he tweeted this out because he’s really concerned about the children.
Here is another Twitter tough guy:
This is from Hugh G. Rection. I am sure that is his real name, and I am sure that his morals are so completely intact that he could judge whoever he wants.
Chiefs fans please reach out to Mr. Black and Mr. Rection and let them know how much you appreciate the courage that they showed to slander someone on a social media site. I’m sure if they could meet Tyreek Hill, they would say the same thing to his face.
I honestly expect this from fans of other teams, though. Nothing can drive someone to stupidity more than when a team you hate has the best player on the planet, let alone the best three players on the planet. That’s why they say stupid things, they are sad that Tyreek Hill isn’t scoring touchdowns for their team. I’m sure if Hill was on their team, then they would be his biggest supporters (i.e Antonio Brown in New England).
I don’t, however, expect this from actual journalists. Michael Holley is a former Boston reporter, so I guess he could be biased against the Chiefs, but he should maintain his journalistic integrity and just report the facts. That fact is that a person is innocent until proven guilty and the only thing that was guilty on Sunday was Tampa Bay for pretending to have a good defense.
Mr Dixon you are absolutely right about this story so much information gets misconstrued due to lack of proper knowledge and I for one am as guilty about not having the correct information before passing judgement on anyone that is why most of the time I try to go back to what God says in the Bible which states do unto others as you would want them to do to you
Its amazing how many people chan pass judgement with only the information they hear from others. Unless you know the FACTS..keep your opinion to yourself. The investigation did not have evidence and I am sure they would have loved to nail this butt if they did.
Too bad guys like this never actually face consequences of their actions until they’ve done something that can’t be undone. As a lawyer and chiefs fan, I’m disgusted that performance trumps behavior in your minds. Proponents of his love to say the full audio clears everything up…how? He looks even worse hearing the whole thing, and if it were any Joe shmo off the street you’d all want him off the streets, let alone prancing around your TV screen. Mark my words this will not be the last violent incident from Hill, we’ll see who’s still in his corner when he kills someone.
Hill is a piece of $hit who gets paid because he is fast. He should be behind bars in just world.
Jack, did your team just lose to the Chiefs in overtime?
I love how you are defending Tyreek Hill because he plays on your team. Am I perfect? Hell no. But my shortcomings are nothing compared to that of Tyreek Hill. He is a horrible human. Likely one of the most disgusting athletes to ever play a sport. How you can defend him let alone praise him is disgusting.
Defending and abuser because he plays for you’re team lol. Then u talk about Twitter tough guys and tell chiefs fans reach out too him? If you get paid to be a writer try writing something without being biased just because they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him with a crime doesn’t mean he’s innocent he has a history of being a abuser.