Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said he was "a little emotional" watching the video of wide receiver Tyreek Hill being detained by police and said he's supporting his teammate after the encounter.
Hill was pulled out of his car, handcuffed and briefly detained during a traffic stop near Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday just hours before the Dolphins took on the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Miami-Dade Police released bodycamera footage Monday showing the encounter, that ended with Hill being given citations for reckless driving and failure to wear a seatbelt.
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The video 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.
One officer involved in the incident was placed on administrative leave, and the department has launched an internal affairs investigation.
Tagovailoa spoke with the media Tuesday and was asked about the video.
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"For me, like just seeing it the first time, it was a little emotional for me, hearing just Tyreek's voice in the footage, just knowing Tyreek. For me a lot of the instances that I see are just, you know, of people that I don't know, it's happening to those people and so for it to have happened to somebody that I knew and then sort of hearing Tyreek's voice throughout that. We talked about it, it was a little emotional," he said. "I couldn't, I don't know like exactly how I would have dealt with that in that situation and I can't speak on something that I've never personally gone through myself, I've never been through any of that growing up in Hawaii."
The incident has led to an outpouring of support for Hill from coaches and teammates, including Tua.
"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.
Tagovailoa said Hill "didn't seem fazed in the lockeroom" before the game against the Jaguars and went out and performed on the field, catching seven passes for 130 yards including an 80-yard touchdown as the Dolphins won 20-17.
"Right in our backyard, like that's just what it was and for him to have stayed in the mindset to be able to still came to the game, still played through all of that and did what he did, I mean just think of that, like what 15, 20 minutes before he came to the stadium he just had gone through all of that, mentally, physically, what that does to you," Tua said. "He didn't blink, he just came to the stadium and got everybody turnt, and you guys seen what he did, he did what he did, and that's just Tyreek."
Tagovailoa said Hill gathered a group of teammates together to "do something to help change some things, come up with a couple ideas."
He said they didn't come up with anything specific but would continue their talks in the coming weeks.
"This isn't just something that Tyreek gone through, like this is something that people in general go through, that's a life thing. Football, we're blessed to do this, we're blessed to be able to play this sport, we're blessed to make all this money to do what we love and it's for fun, but that's real life, no games in that," Tagovailoa said.
