Tyreek Hill has been playing with a torn ligament in his left wrist and according to an ESPN report, he blamed police for aggravating the injury.
Prior to the Miami Dolphins 23-15 road victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football, Hill reportedly told ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters that he injured his wrist during training camp, but it became a larger issue after his Week 1 encounter with police.
Tyreek Hill told @saltersl that his left wrist had been bothering him since training camp and said that it became an issue when he was detained by police in September.
Hill said he has a torn ligament in the wrist but has been playing through it. pic.twitter.com/hc40VbeBcK
— ESPN (@espn) November 12, 2024
“He said that left wrist had been bothering him in training camp, but really became an issue when he was arrested by police, taken to the ground before the season opener. We all remember seeing that video,” Salters told Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on the Monday Night Football broadcast. “He said he’s been quiet about it because he hasn’t really known how to feel or what to do or how to deal because he’s not used to being injured. He said, ‘that arrest messed me up.’”
That’s a notable accusation from Hill. And if accurate, it’s fair to wonder whether Hill is considering legal action against the Miami-Dade Police Department. But after the game, NFL Network’s Taylor Bisciotti asked Hill how he suffered his wrist injury, and the Miami Dolphins wide receiver conflicted with the report he gave ESPN.
The #Dolphins keep their season alive… and Tyreek Hill gets back in the end zone. My postgame interview with him. @nflnetwork @AroundTheNFL @cheetah pic.twitter.com/WO1Yx01wer
— Taylor Bisciotti (@TaylorBisciotti) November 12, 2024
“Against the Commanders Week 1 and then I kind of reaggravated it trying to block my tail off during the course of the year,” Hill told Bisciotti. “But it happens. It’s football. No excuses. There’s a lot of guys in the NFL who are hurt, who are injured, it’s part of my job description and I love it, man. My wife, she just gotta rub my wrist a little bit longer tonight.”
Hill coming out and publicly faulting the police for aggravating his wrist injury would have made for quite the postgame interview. But the story he told NFL Network is different from the one he reportedly shared with ESPN.
Miami played the Commanders in Week 2 of the preseason. Hill’s altercation with the police occurred in Week 1 of the regular season. Prior to the Dolphins’ Week 1 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Hill was detained by police in a traffic stop that appeared to be escalated by the officers’ use of excessive force. Body-cam footage showed Hill refuse to keep his window rolled down before an officer eventually dragged him from the car and placed the star wide receiver in handcuffs, holding him face down on the ground.
Two months later, Hill told ESPN the Week 1 incident with police is to blame for aggravating his wrist injury. A few hours later, however, Hill told NFL Network he aggravated his wrist injury while blocking.
[ESPN, NFL Network]
