Head coach Mike McDaniel and the Miami Dolphins are coming off a narrow Week 1 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
But that is in no way the story in South Beach one day after the fact. Rather, it’s all about the incident star wide receiver Tyreek Hill was involved in heading to Hard Rock Stadium for the game.
Hill was pulled over by police officers for speeding and reckless driving. The incident in question saw the All-Pro receiver detained for a bit before he was released. Though, videos at the scene also show Miami-Dade Police Officers seemingly being a bit too violent for such a minor infraction. That included Hill being thrown to the ground as he was detained.
One of the officers in question has been played on administrative duties as the department conducts an internal investigation into the matter.
McDaniel touched on the incident in his Monday press conference. He was clearly emotional as he demanded transparency.
“I am confident that everything will get reviewed, and I am confident that this is too much in the spotlight to just sweep under the rug,” Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said, via Adam Beasley of Pro Football Network. “So I feel like, what I don’t know now, it’s not my time to know. But I think facts supersede everything. I think it’s important for people to allow a fair process for all information to get distributed.”
Veteran pass rusher Calais Campbell was also put in handcuffs as he pulled over in an attempt to figure out what was happening. It was an entire scene outside Hard Rock Stadium.
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For his part, Hill also touched on the incident after Sunday’s win over Jacksonville.
“Right now, I’m still trying to put it all together … I still don’t know what happened,” Hill said. “But I do want to use this platform to say, ‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’ Worst-case scenario, you know? … Everybody has bad apples in every situation, but I want to be able to use this platform to figure out a way to flip this and make it a positive on my end and Miami-Dade and do something positive for the community.
“It’s hard. I don’t want to bring race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy when you do. What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what those guys would have done. I just wanted to make sure I was doing what my uncle always told me to do whenever you’re in a situation like that — put your hands on the steering wheel and just listen.”
This story is not going to die down any time soon. Whenever you have an incident such as this involving police officers and a star athlete, it won’t be swept under the rug.