What to make of Hill divorce saga? Probably just Tyreek being Tyreek | Habib
This is Tyreek Hill’s world and we’re all just cornerbacks living in it.
Is Tyreek about to run a post pattern on us? A fade? A slant?
With Tyreek, you never know. You probably already figured that out, but just to be sure, Hill made it abundantly clear these past few days.
He filed for divorce.
Then said he didn’t.
Because he’s happily married.
He said he and Keeta Vaccaro, married in November, are going to stay a happy couple. Which doesn’t seem a stretch if you saw them together on “Hard Knocks” or him dutifully delivering footballs to her after scoring touchdowns for the Dolphins.
More: Dolphins' Tyreek Hill files for divorce ... but says he's ‘happily married'
So, what gives?
Odds are, it’s Tyreek being Tyreek. He’s forever a study in contrasts, cutting in and cutting out at the same time. He might say one thing and mean it. He might say one thing and mean the opposite. The sooner you accept that the sooner you’re in on “it.”
What is “it”? It is Tyreek being Tyreek. Loving being Tyreek. Hardly a single session with reporters went by this season without at least one good laugh wrapped around a head-scratcher that you know you’re not supposed to take seriously, you think you’re not supposed to take seriously, or you’re supposed to assume he’s dead serious about. He’s a human back-shoulder fade.
Tyreek Hill and the ’feud' with Micah Parsons that wasn't
Last offseason, Tyreek and Dallas’ fearsome Micah Parsons were in a war of words. Come Christmas Eve, when the Cowboys played the Dolphins, Tyreek would have had you believing he was going to pounce at the first opening to take a good whack at Parsons.
Then? Nothing. Hill even arranged for tickets for Parsons' family.
“Micah is my guy,” Tyreek said after the game. Nothing serious, he said. Ha ha. Did you really buy that? Joke’s on you.
In August, after a joint practice in Houston with the Texans, Tyreek made a startling claim.
“Believe this or not, I don’t watch no film,” he said. “I just know the game of football inside out.”
Believe it or not? Choose not.
Sept. 10, on the receiving corps prepping for the season: “We just came together, started watching film every day.” Dec. 3, after scoring a touchdown: “It’s all film study.” Dec. 8, on turning down a chance to go out with the guys: “Nah, bruh. I’ve got to watch this film.”
The fun part is you didn’t have to go deep into the season to know that Tyreek, of course, does watch film. When coaches and teammates say he's a consummate professional, it's not just lip service; he goes full speed, every rep, every practice. That same day, Aug. 17, in which he claimed he never watched film, he also said, “You go to the film room, you learn from it, and you get better from it.”
Some advice if you're really a fan of Hill's
What’s the lesson to apply to this week? That’s up to you. If you’re a fan with your priorities straight, you hope Tyreek and Keeta are happily married and stay that way, both for their sake and the children’s. You hope the significant damage done to their home from a fire last month gets patched up and they can quickly move past it. You hope he can have another season worthy of another team MVP award. Perhaps crash that 2,000-yard barrier he badly wanted this year.
Through it all, you’ll have a better understanding of Tyreek being Tyreek. At one point this season, he made points about talking heads on TV these days with an abundance of hot takes. He wished former players who do so had longer memories to recall what it’s like for active players to hear such stuff. “We have families,” he said. “We have lives. We deal with that.”
Dead on, this was, leaving no room for ambiguity. He was serious.
Except …
Asked a follow-up question on how he blocks out this stuff, he said: “Have you read my Twitter bio? I’m Twitter’s biggest instigator.”
That’s the Cheetah for you. Or is he a lion? He claimed to be both this season, but he might want to add one more to the list.
Chameleon.
Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: What to make of Hill divorce saga? Probably just Tyreek being Tyreek
