Tyreek Hill, Tua Tagovailoa and Miami Dolphins refocus for Buffalo Bills test after 'emotional' week
Tyreek Hill called for a police officer to be fired this week after he was dragged out of his car during a traffic stop ahead of Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars; watch Hill and the Miami Dolphins face the Buffalo Bills live on Sky Sports NFL from 1.15am Friday morning
Wednesday 11 September 2024 20:52, UK
Tyreek Hill says he wishes he had handled things a "bit differently" during Sunday's scary incident with Miami police, the bodycam footage of which quarterback Tua Tagovailoa admits left him 'emotional'.
Dolphins receiver Hill was stopped by Miami-Dade police officers for a traffic violation before being dragged out of his car and pinned to the ground while on the way to Sunday's season-opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Police bodycam footage has since displayed officers swearing at Hill, who did not strike them or resist their physical force.
"I will say I could have been better," Hill said. "I could have let down my window in that instant. But the thing about me is, I don't want attention. I don't want to be cameras-out, phones-on-you in that moment. But at the end of the day, I'm human. I've got to follow rules. I've got to do what everyone else would do.
"Now, does that give them the right to literally beat the dog out of me? Absolutely not," Hill continued. "But at the end of the day, I wish I could go back and do things a bit differently."
Hill, who celebrated his 80-yard touchdown against the Jags by pretending to be in handcuffs, called for the officer involved in his incident, who has been placed on administrative leave, to be fired. Sky Sports News has contacted Miami-Dade police for a statement.
He reiterated this during a news conference on Wednesday: "Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. He's gotta go, man," Hill explained. "In that instant right there, not only did he treat me bad, but he also treated my team-mates with disrespect. He had some crazy words towards them and they didn't even do nothing. Like, what did they do to you? They're just walking on the sidewalk. He's got to go, man."
Calais Campbell was also placed in handcuffs after stopping at the scene to try and diffuse the situation. Hill noted he was in a movie theatre when the police footage was released on Monday night.
"It's shell-shocking, man," Hill said. "It's really crazy to know that you have officers in this world that would literally do that with bodycams on. It's sad. It's really sad. Which brings up another conversation and leads into What would they do if they didn't have bodycams?,' which is even crazier."
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Hill and his team-mates will now turn their attention towards Thursday night's clash with the Buffalo Bills, with the Dolphins star saying he will not take a knee in protest against policy brutality.
"Right now, what I'm focused on is my job and that's to play football," Hill continued. "That's all I can be, the best football player I can be."
Tagovailoa insists the police bodycam footage was reflective of "real life", with he and teammates planning to come together to discuss ways of creating change.
"It was a little emotional for me, hearing Tyreek's voice in the footage, just knowing Tyreek," said Tagovailoa. "For me, a lot of the instances that I see are of people that I don't know and it's happening to those people, so for it to have happened to somebody that I knew, and then hearing Tyreek's voice throughout that - and we talked about it, it was a little emotional.
"I've never been through any of that growing up in Hawaii, but he knows that he has my support. I would say just watching the film, in my opinion, I think it could have been deescalated 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, but I know Tyreek has gathered a group of us together to do something, to help change some things. He's come up with a couple ideas and we've gathered to talk about what we wanted to do.
"We're going to worry about this week, but next week we'll get back together and we'll talk about how we can do something to change what is going on. It's right in our backyard, that's just what it was. For him to have stayed in that mindset to be able to still have came to the game, still play through all of that and did what he did - just think of that."
Tagovailoa explained that he, Hill and Dolphins team-mates have since shared their different upbringings and experiences with law enforcement, both good and bad.
While Thursday's game against the Bills is the current focus, the Dolphins quarterback insists the incident is a reminder of an issue that must not be overlooked.
"I think the thing is we don't avoid the obvious - it's a thing, yeah. Let it be what it is, let it take its course. I think when we start to brush that away and think that this football thing is the most important thing to us when - this isn't just something that Tyreek had gone through, 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, brother."
The Dolphins enter their Week Two matchup having lost 11 of the last 12 games against the Bills, who have won four successive AFC East titles.
Tagovailoa is meanwhile 1-6 as starter against Buffalo since entering the league, but is ready to quash the idea that Miami cannot oust their division rivals.
"That's going to be what's written out there until we do something about that," he said. "That's going to be the narrative, that we can't beat the Bills.
"And until we do beat them, and we beat them consistently, none of that's going to change. And we have an opportunity to do that this year. We have an opportunity to do that this Thursday."
Tagovailoa completed 23 of 37 passes for 338 yards and a touchdown as the Dolphins came from behind to beat the Jaguars on Sunday, Jevon Holland's forced fumble of Travis Etienne in the end zone proving defining.
The Bills meanwhile enter on the back of their own 34-28 comeback victory against the Arizona Cardinals, during which Josh Allen threw for two touchdowns and ran in two more as the Bills overturned a 17-3 deficit.
Watch Tyreek Hill and the Miami Dolphins face the Buffalo Bills in Thursday Night Football, live on Sky Sports NFL from 1.15am in the early hours of Friday morning; Also stream with NOW.
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