The team’s decision came a day after the criminal investigation involving Hill in Kansas was closedGETTY IMAGES
Chiefs GM Brett Veach announced Thursday night that WR Tyreek Hill "would not participate in team activities for the 'foreseeable future' while the Chiefs gather more information" about a "disturbing audio recording" between Hill and his fiancee Crystal Espinal that had been released just hours earlier, according to Brooke Pryor of the K.C. STAR. Veach, speaking at the NFL Draft on Thursday, said: "We will make the right decision regarding Tyreek Hill." Hill last month was being investigated for a domestic violence charge involving his 3-year-old son. Earlier on Thursday, a "brief clip of a more than 11-minute audio recording" obtained by KCTV-CBS was released. On it, Espinal could be heard saying, paraphrasing the boys’ words,"'Daddy did it.' He is terrified of you." Hill responded, according to the recording: "You need to be terrified of me, too, b----." The team’s decision on Hill came a day after Johnson County (Kansas) District Attorney Steve Howe "announced that the criminal investigation involving Hill and the boy’s mother was closed, and he wouldn’t be filing charges." Howe said then that he "believed a crime had occurred, but he couldn’t prove who committed it" (K.C. STAR, 4/26). Before the recording aired, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in an interview with ESPN's Sam Ponder said that the league "was still investigating" (ESPN.com, 4/25).
BEEN HERE BEFORE: In K.C., Vahe Gregorian writes unless the Chiefs are "morally bankrupt, it’s easy now" regarding what to do with Hill. If they "care about honor and decency, Hill can’t be part of this team." The Chiefs are in "business to compete, not be a pillar of virtue." However, those worlds "can collide, and it can be complicated." The "spotlight now is on what looms as a trend for this franchise," which cut RB Kareem Hunt last fall "only after video surfaced of him knocking over and shoving a woman months before and emphasized it was for lying" (K.C. STAR, 4/26). YAHOO SPORTS' Terez Paylor wrote if the audio "proves Hill lied to the Chiefs in any way since then, just remember that the team set the precedent for how they deal with players who do that" when they cut Hunt (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 4/25).
CALL TO ACTION: USA TODAY's Nancy Armour writes if this audio recording is authenticated, Hill "needs to be banished" from the league "immediately." The ban "needs to be permanent so Jerry Jones or some other owner with a flexible conscience won’t find himself tempted when he’s in need of a wide receiver" (USA TODAY, 4/26). NBCSN's Mike Florio said there is "only one right decision" for the NFL, and that is to "sever ties" permanently with Hill. Florio: "He needs to be suspended for good" ("PFT," NBCSN, 4/26). In K.C., Sam Mellinger writes the Chiefs are "left embarrassed." The organization "promotes itself as community focused," but now that "reads like an awful joke." The Chiefs have been "part of the problem." But they can now "choose to be part of the solution." That would "require a reset of how they consider players, but more importantly an effort to educate themselves and the public on how to understand and help prevent violence and support victims" (K.C. STAR, 4/26).
