Dolphins, who have added players with past legal troubles, felt ‘comfortable’ with Hill
At the NFL’s annual league owners meetings in Palm Beach, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier spoke for the first time since the team’s biggest move of the offseason, trading for wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
While Grier on Monday mainly spoke about the thought process behind acquiring the six-time Pro Bowler and how he fits in a retooled offense, he was asked about Hill’s past legal troubles, which includes pleading guilty to domestic assault and battery when he was in college.
In response to a question about the type of background work the organization conducted regarding Hill’s off-field incidents, Grier said: “Going forward, we feel good about it. We talked to a number of people that have been around Tyreek, especially in Kansas City the last few years. For us, we’re comfortable moving forward and the expectation, like him, will be for every player on the roster — it’s to be a good teammate and a good citizen in South Florida.”
It’s not the first time the Dolphins have brought on — or looked into — a player with past legal troubles.
In March 2021, the team swapped a pair of late-round draft picks with the Tennessee Titans for offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson, a 2020 first-round pick whose young career had been derailed by a series of off-field incidents, including DUI.
Last December, the team signed another 2020 first-round pick, Damon Arnette, who had been released from the Las Vegas Raiders after brandishing a weapon and threatening someone on social media.
And while the Dolphins’ pursuit of quarterback Deshaun Watson did not result in a deal, Grier faced questions after last season’s trade deadline regarding why the organization coveted a player who at the time was embroiled in 22 civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct and several more since-dismissed criminal charges.
“We did our due diligence behind the scenes, trying to figure out — to gather as much information as we can,” Grier said Nov. 3.
In vetting Hill’s past, the Dolphins spoke to a range of people with connections to and knowledge of Hill in and out of the league.
“It was about a five-day period trying to come together,” Grier said of the trade and extension, a four-year, $120 million deal that made Hill the highest-paid receiver in NFL history. “We were fortunate and thank [Chiefs GM Brett Veach and coach Andy Reid] for their patience as well, and we feel good about adding Tyreek.”
Teams typically conduct background checks on draft prospects, which can be as little as talking to people that grew up around them and spent time with them in college, or as thorough as speaking to law enforcement and looking into past legal troubles if a player has had a run-in with the law.
Hill, 28, was dismissed from Oklahoma State’s football team in 2014 after being arrested for domestic violence, which led him to finish his college career at Division II University of West Alabama in Livingston. Hill allegedly threw his pregnant girlfriend around “like a ragdoll,” punched her in the face, sat on her, punched her in the stomach and choked her, according to a police report obtained by the Tulsa World in Oklahoma. Hill pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation. He received three years of probation and was sentenced to enroll in an anger-management course, a year-long batterer’s program. He also had to undergo a domestic-abuse evaluation. The woman eventually gave birth to a boy.
In 2019, Hill was the subject of a criminal investigation for alleged battery after an incident left his son, then 3, with a broken arm. As of 2019, the case was inactive after medical investigations determined the arm was broken by accident. Hill did not receive any discipline from the NFL and has not had any legal issues since. Reid praised Hill’s growth in January 2020.
“Tyreek’s done a nice job with having signed the contract but also his life off the field and managing that,” Reid said before Super Bowl 54. “I’m proud of him for that, to see growth in somebody. You like to see that with these young guys. He’s doing well as a father, and he’s doing well as a football player, and we’re lucky to have him.”
The Dolphins’ low-risk, high-reward swings on talented-but-troubled lower-profile players have typically ended in the “low-risk” distinction. Days after trading for Wilson, the Dolphins released him after he refused the team’s efforts to help him. Arnette was on the team’s practice squad for the final three weeks of the regular season but wasn’t signed to a reserve/futures contract. Weeks later, he was arrested in Las Vegas on assault charges.
Hill has remained out of the legal spotlight for multiple years now and the Dolphins have confidence through their behind-the-scenes work that his past troubles are well behind him.
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 11:58 AM.
