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Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill returns to Kansas City to face his former team after tumultuous couple of weeks

david furones, south florida sun-sentinel
·5 min read
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MIAMI GARDENS — Tyreek Hill was already supposed to have returned to Arrowhead Stadium by now.

The Miami Dolphins, his NFL team of this season and last, were scheduled for a road game against the Kansas City Chiefs, his team for his first six seasons, in the 2023 regular season. That game turned out to be shipped to Frankfurt, Germany as a part of the league’s international series.

If the NFL does have script writers, as is a common joke around social media, they must’ve known it would work out for Hill to go right back to Kansas City in the postseason.

Hill and his Dolphins take on the Chiefs in an arctic Saturday night playoff showdown in temperatures that could be below zero at kickoff of their AFC wild-card clash.

But it also couldn’t come at a more tumultuous time for Hill, who led the league in receiving yards and set the Dolphins’ franchise record with his 1,799 yards through the air this season. It’s a number that’s also a career high, topping any output from his days as a Chief.

Hill has had to move his family out of his mansion in Southwest Ranches after a fire at his home Jan. 3. He was practicing ahead of Miami’s regular-season finale against the Bills when it happened, and Hill fled team facilities to attend to his family amid the blaze.

“My wife is good, mom is good and my nephews are good,” Hill said Thursday in his first public comments since the fire, which was deemed accidental and caused by a child playing with a lighter. “That’s all that matters. That was the main concern of mine, being at practice and hearing about the news. Right now, it’s just a transition for us. But that’s what players do. We find a way to bounce back. That’s what life is, ups and downs. You have things happen and you have to find a way to adjust to adversity.”

Hill’s home suffered $2.3 million in damages, according to a TMZ report.

“I feel like there are crazier things in the world going on,” Hill said. “The way that I look at it is I’m not the only person in the world having a bad day. There are other people having bad days. God has blessed me with great things, and I have a great support system with teammates and family.

“Although it sucks to see rooms destroyed and everything that you worked for destroyed — it sucks — but my main thing was health, making sure my kids are all right.”

It’s not just in his personal life where Hill has faced some turbulence. He has had a nagging ankle injury for the past month that made him sit out the Dec. 17 game against the New York Jets and has slowed him since then. He also had a quadriceps ailment added to the injury report this week, although neither will keep him off the field.

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In his three games back after the Jets game, though, Hill has also dropped a number of pivotal passes, with the Dolphins losing two of those three. Sunday night against the Bills, multiple fourth-quarter drops prevented Miami from coming back from a one-touchdown deficit. The week before against the Ravens, he dropped a touchdown in the end zone before the game snowballed against the Dolphins. In the Christmas Eve outing vs. Dallas, he would’ve had a 92-yard touchdown had he corralled a deep throw after beating his defender.

Just trying to get back to the basics,” said Hill, who was seen after Thursday’s drills catching passes off the Jugs machine. “Even though I don’t got to, I try to get back to the things that got me to this point, which is attention to detail, the fundamentals and the techniques that the coaches taught me or even my dad taught me going back to the roots.”

But through all of it, Hill makes a return to the stadium where he made a professional name for himself, earning six Pro Bowls in as many seasons and winning a slew of playoff games, one run leading to a Super Bowl to cap the 2019 season.

“Just another game, man” Hill said. “Obviously, I’m very excited for it. I’m not looking forward to the cold, but to see old faces again and play inside of Arrowhead is going to be a special moment for myself.”

But there hasn’t been any communication yet with old teammates, like quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce.

“I haven’t texted Mahomes since they beat our a– (Nov. 5 in Germany),” Hill said. “I texted Kelce, but he still hasn’t texted me back. He’s probably still on his Taylor Swift thing. But yeah, man, those guys are too famous for me now, I guess.”

Hill was named the Dolphins’ team MVP for the season, an award named after Dan Marino and voted on by the South Florida media. Others to be recognized at the end of the season: fullback Alec Ingold won with the Don Shula Leadership Award; offensive lineman Austin Jackson was given the Ed Block Courage Award; and outside linebacker Bradley Chubb was honored with the Nat Moore Community Service Award.