Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill fears what could have happened during a confrontation with police on Sunday morning if not for his status as a famous football player.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News on Monday night, Hill insisted he was cooperative with officers when he was pulled over on his way to Hard Rock Stadium.
‘If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, Lord knows,’ the All-Pro wide receiver said. ‘I probably would have been, like, worst-case scenario, I would have been shot or would have been locked up’ and ‘put behind bars, you know, for a simple speeding ticket.’
Newly released body-camera footage shows a chaotic three-minute sequence in which Hill is pulled over for speeding, taken to the ground and put into handcuffs. It also shows the moments afterward in which Hill repeatedly complained of knee pain while teammates watched from nearby and tried to help.
‘It just went from 0 to 60, man, from the moment that those guys pulled up behind me, knocked on my window, it went from 0 to 60 immediately,’ Hill recounted.
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The encounter has since led to an internal investigation by the Miami-Dade Police Department that has already resulted in at least one officer being put on administrative leave.
Hill’s Atlanta-based lawyer, J.B. Collins, released a statement Monday saying his legal team is ‘exploring all legal remedies’ and calling the officers’ actions ‘excessive.’