Tyreek Hill had a chance to talk about his legal situation Sunday after the Dolphins beat the Jaguars, but he wasn’t quite ready to dive into what exactly happened. One day later, Hill decided to tell his side of the story.
The main point the Dolphins receiver made is that he’s lucky to be a celebrity. Hill said he knows the situation might have ended with him being shot if he wasn’t who he was.
“If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, worst-case scenario, we would have had a different article: ‘Tyreek Hill got shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium’ … or ‘Tyreek Hill put in handcuffs, taken in and booked,'” Hill said in an interview with CNN on Monday night.
During an interview with NBC Nightly News that was broadcast on Monday, Hill said he did his best to comply with the officer who pulled him over a few blocks away from Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday morning.
“It was one of those situations where I was like, ‘Here you go, my ID sir.’ And I let back up my window,” Hill said. “He said, ‘Let it down.’ I let it down. That’s when it went from zero to ten. Other officer came in, just pulled me out.”
Hill said he was trying to open his door, but the officers simply didn’t give him enough time to follow their orders.
“I was opening my door and I was trying to get out, but I felt like they was wanting me to move fast,” Hill said.
The Dolphins star was then immediately placed in handcuffs, “They felt like I was a threat and I don’t see why they felt like I was a threat,” Hill said.
The body cam footage from the incident was released Monday just before his interview with NBC aired and the footage showed just how aggressive the police were during the situation with Hill.
A police union in South Florida released a statement Monday saying that Hill was uncooperative with police, which is an assertion the receiver strongly disagrees with.
“I feel like at the end of the day, if you roll up on somebody all hostile, knocking on their window and they already got their ID ready for you,” Hill said. “It’s not like I said, ‘You’re not getting my ID, you’re not getting my ID.'”
That being said, Hill did seem to understand why the union claimed he was being uncooperative.
“I mean, you know everybody has their own sides, their own version,” Hill said. “I feel like they do that to kind of protect their officer, which is right, you know. You got to have your teammate’s back.”
One of the officers involved in the case has already been placed on administrative leave as Miami-Dade police continue to investigate the situation.
Hill said he was shocked that he got pulled over because he didn’t feel like he was breaking any laws.
“It was surprising to me that I got pulled over,” Hill said.
The Dolphins star made light of the incident during Miami’s 20-17 win over Jacksonville. After scoring on an 80-yard catch, Hill had a teammate put him in handcuffs as part of his celebration.
“You have to learn about how to laugh and have a good time,” Hill said when asked about his decision to celebrate his TD like that.
Hill’s biggest takeaway from the incident is that he doesn’t want to see something like this happen to others.
Hill, who was given two citations — one for careless driving and one for a seatbelt violation — is exploring litigation, according to his attorney.
