Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill was detained and taken to the ground by Miami-Dade police officers after being pulled over for reckless driving on Sunday, Sept. 8. Hill’s teammate, Calais Campbell, was also detained while attempting to defuse the situation, and tight end Jonnu Smith was involved in the verbal altercation as well. Hill, a Super Bowl champion and eight-time Pro Bowler who led the NFL in receiving yards and touchdowns in the 2023 season, was on his way to Hard Rock Stadium for the Dolphins’s first game of the 2024-25 season when the incident with the police occurred.
In the body cam footage taken by police that was released in the following days, Hill can be heard pleading to the officers that he had been going 55 mph. In the footage, Hill rolls his window down, hands his driver’s license to the police, and then trades remarks with the officer.
The officer asked why he didn’t have his seatbelt on, while Hill claimed that he didn’t appreciate the way the police knocked on his window; the wide receiver promptly rolled his window back up. The officer knocked on the window again, telling him to keep it down, and when Hill cracked his window, the officer ordered him to get out of the car. Two of the four officers at the scene opened the door of Hill’s McLaren 720S and immediately pinned him to the ground. Campbell spoke on ESPN First Take about his reaction to Hill’s asking his friends and teammates to stay by his side, “If they take us to jail, they take us to jail, we gonna do this together.”
Also noticed in the body cam footage is Smith pulling over in front of the altercation. The police immediately told Smith that he could not park there and pressured him to leave the scene. Meanwhile, defensive tackle Campbell stopped his car behind the incident and was also placed in detainment for refusing to leave.
The 2019 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award winner, Campbell told the officers “You can tow my car, I don’t feel like I’m blocking traffic,” and was then detained. The Miami-Dade Police Department’s treatment of the football stars has sparked immense debate beyond the football world, specifically that of police brutality and social justice.
“It is both maddening and heartbreaking to watch the very people we trust to protect our community use such unnecessary force and hostility towards these players, yet it is also a reminder that not every situation like this ends in peace, as we are grateful this one did,” the Miami Dolphins organization said in a statement. The Dolphins organization also emphasized a question that their star wide receiver made earlier in a statement released on Sept. 9. saying that “‘What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?’” is a question with a resounding impact.
The Miami-Dade Police Department announced that Hill was issued two traffic citations and was allowed to leave. However, this has also begged the question of whether or not such treatment to the 30-year-old was necessary if they only tagged him with two traffic violations.
“I was following rules, I wasn’t moving very fast because, you know, I got injuries, I got things that I go through. I play a physical sport. I’ve been doing this for a moment now, man, so I’m dealing with some stuff, so I guess the officers, they felt like I wasn’t doing it on their timing. I was doing it, but I’m still kind of shell-shocked from it,” Hill described to CNN,“I’m embarrassed.”
The Dolphins phenomenon has expressed that he will continue to use his platform for civic responsibility as a means of combating injustice and police brutality within the Miami area as well as across the world. “We tried it all. We protested. We even took a knee. We walked. So what’s next?” Hill said while on CNN. “Right now, me and my wife are brainstorming on how we can be a part of this change.”
Evidently, the altercation did not hinder the superstar’s performance in his Week One afternoon game as he slotted in seven catches on 12 targets with 130 yards and an astonishingly long 80-yard touchdown — the longest of his career. Subsequently, Hill shocked football fans with a celebration in which he put his hands behind his back as if he was being handcuffed.
Fellow wide receiver Jaylen Waddle assisted in the celebration by playing the role of the cop “arresting” Hill, fulfilling the parody of the event from earlier that day. Hill and Waddle, a dynamic receiving duo for NFL defenses, led the team in its 20-17 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars to start the season 1-0.
