Miami Dolphins players and coaches have rallied around Tyreek Hill following an encounter with Miami-Dade Police that saw the star wide receiver handcuffed and detained before the team's season opening game.
Police bodycamera footage released Monday showed an officer pulled Hill out of his sports car by his arm and forced him face-first to the ground after Hill put up the window of his car during a traffic stop before Sunday's game.
Hill was handcuffed and detained but released after he received citations for careless driving and failing to wear a seatbelt.
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Defensive tackle Calais Campbell also pulled up to the scene. He was told to leave and when he didn't, he was briefly handcuffed.
Campbell said he was driving into Hard Rock Stadium when he saw Hill handcuffed, and he stopped to help. The 17-year NFL veteran ended up in handcuffs as well, saying officers told him it was because he disobeyed their direct orders.
“I’d seen, I feel like excessive force, so I get out of the car to kind of just try to de-escalate the situation,” Campbell said, also calling the incident “a bit extreme."
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One officer involved in the incident was placed on administrative leave, and the department has launched an internal affairs investigation.
After the incident, Dolphins safety Jevon Holland said it was "not unnatural" to see police conduct the traffic stop that way – including what the footage appeared to show: one officer striking his handcuffed teammate.
“Excessive force on a Black man, that’s not uncommon. It’s a very common thing in America,” Holland said. "So I think that needs to be addressed at a countrywide level.”
Dolphins tight end Jonnu Smith, who was at the scene to support Hill, echoed Holland’s sentiments.
“Obviously we all see the police brutality that goes on in this country, and when you see your teammate possibly being part of that, you’re doing everything in your power to help him,” he said.
Other Dolphins players said they were used to seeing the kind of police conduct that Hill experienced.
“I won’t say it was scary. It’s something I’m used to seeing,” linebacker David Long Jr. said.
The Dolphins, in a statement released Monday night said they have a strong relationship with the police department but were “saddened” by the altercation.
“As is on full display in the videos released tonight, there are some officers who mistake their responsibility and commitment to serve with misguided power,” the team said. “While we commend MDPD for taking the right and necessary action to quickly release this footage, we also urge them to take equally swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior.”
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa told reporters Tuesday it was "a little emotional" when he saw the video of Hill being detained.
"He knows that he has my support, I would say just with watching the film, in my opinion I think it could have been de-escalated another way, I don't think it was done the right way. There's a lot of things that I think could have been done different," Tagovailoa said.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel became emotional while discussing the incident.
“I would venture to guess that one of the favorite parts of being in the NFL and being on an NFL team is that we are able to immerse ourselves into something that's a tangible goal, that you have some control over,” McDaniel said Monday. “I think a lot of times, it's therapeutic to be in the process of NFL game week, a Thursday night division opponent. There's a lot of very constructive things to think about. Sometimes, that can be our greatest gift, that gift of supreme distraction.”
The Dolphins played through the enormous distraction to beat the Jaguars. The distraction will linger into Thursday, when they take on the Bills, without question. McDaniel was deeply bothered Sunday by the incident and those feelings hadn't changed Monday.
“It's been hard for me not to find myself more upset, the more I think about it,” McDaniel said.
That said, he liked what he saw Sunday on the scoreboard and in the locker room.
"Super proud of teammates being teammates,” McDaniel said. “And super proud of our guys understanding the civic responsibility of a platform and intending to do right by it."
Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver also discussed the incident on Tuesday.
"Having now seen the video, obvious, it's triggering for a number of reasons," Weaver said. "It's an unfortunate incident, I know there's a lot of good people in law enforcement…I think each of these cases needs to be judged on a case by case basis."
Weaver said he was especially surprised to hear of Campbell being placed in handcuffs. The popular veteran was previously named the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, in 2019.
"Not in a million years would I have ever expected going into that game that scenario to occur," Weaver said.
Weaver also spoke of his own experiences and family.
"I have two boys and my wife is Mexican-American, and both the times that they were born and they were light-skinned, there was almost a sense of relief in that they're gonna have to avoid some of the, let's say issues, that I've had to deal with throughout my life," Weaver said. "So it's unfortunate in this day and time in the world that that still occurs, it's out there. I think the majority of people are good people and shoot, I was raised Christian, I have faith in the story because I know who the author is. So I have faith in this world and people in general, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and ultimately I think good always prevails."
