TYREEK HILL NEEDS TO BEHAVE — RIGHT? — IF HE WANTS TITLE GLORY IN MIAMI

He suggests “race” is why he was detained for speeding and was handcuffed on the ground, a mess for the Dolphins recalling when Scottie Scheffler — a white golfer — was arrested in a car in Louisville

     What if he “wasn’t” Tyreek Hill? He had the gumption to ask a loaded question, so let’s assume the rest of us would remain in jail after he was allowed freedom Sunday. Police officers can be cruel, unforgiving, awful — for all of us, depending on the scene and why it is happening. Does he think he was picked on because he is Black? Would he like to know about the severe bump on my head once upon a time?

     How hazardous of him to suggest race was an issue as he sped in his car, which led cops to detain him for reckless driving outside Hard Rock Stadium. Hill was handcuffed face-down on the ground and surrounded by police about three hours before the Miami Dolphins hosted a game. How fast was he going? Was he in an area where fans might have wandered? Tyreek Hill always seeks speed, regardless of safety.

     And yes, as he asks, we’d probably be in trouble regardless of race. Ask golf star Scottie Scheffler, who is white and was arrested for driving in the wrong direction at the PGA Championship before spending time in a Louisville jail. America is an intense place, children. Many of us wouldn’t have been told to carry on and, say, catch seven passes for 130 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown in a 20-17 win over Jacksonville. After which, Hill reenacted his detainment in a gag as teammate Jaylen Waddle held his hands behind his back.

     What we know about Hill is a checkered history, including his guilty plea to charges of domestic battery against his pregnant girlfriend. He was sued by a social media influencer who said he “forcefully” shoved her during football drills and broke her leg. His house suffered $2.3 million in fire damages this year. I could go on about Hill.

     “Right now, I'm still trying to put it all together. ... I still don't know what happened,” Hill said. "But I do want to use this platform to say, ‘What if I wasn't Tyreek Hill?’ Like worst-case scenario, you know? Everybody has bad apples in every situation, but I want to be able to use this platform to figure out a way to flip this and make it a positive on both ends, on my end and on Miami-Dade, so we can team together and do something positive for the community.

     “It's hard. I don't want to bring race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy when you do. What if I wasn't Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what those guys would have done.”

     Ask Scheffler, who wondered about road traffic in May. Did Hill mouth off? “I wasn’t disrespectful because my mom didn’t raise me that way,” he said. “Didn’t cuss. Didn’t do none of that. I’m still trying to figure it out, man.”

     That said, logic insists Hill might have been involved in disrespecting authority. He continues to be a primary topic for NFL security, leaving a dagger in the Dolphins when he’s still one of football’s elite playmakers and fastest players. This is a franchise that could challenge the Kansas City Chiefs, who have survived for championships without Hill and have loaded up with Xavier Worthy and Hollywood Brown. He could go haywire at any time. Who knew his first seasonal hit would happen at the home opener?

     How does management deal with a man who’s a bigger time bomb off the field than he is on it? He is owed $106.5 million over the next four seasons. He led the league last year with 1,799 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. Potent as he is, incidents keep messing with his legacy and might prevent a Super Bowl.

     His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, defended his guy as a longtime native of south Florida. “A heartbreaking situation. How things escalated into the situation that they were in, in handcuffs and being held on the ground with police, is mind-boggling to me,” he told ESPN. “I’m deeply concerned by that. Very troubled. We will be looking into it. We will be investigating. We will look out for Tyreek, but I’m not going to make any allegations at this time. The most important thing is Tyreek is OK physically, mentally he was very distraught about what happened.”

     So what happened? Race is a convenient excuse when, in truth, he has driven often to the stadium in Miami Gardens. Teammate Calais Campbell stopped at the scene and also was detained. “I’d seen, I feel like, excessive force so I got out of my car to kind of just try to de-escalate the situation,” he said before he “disobeyed a direct order … He said I was too close to the scene and then he said something about me not moving my car in time, I don't know. He told me I wasn't being arrested but he cited me for being detained and then released.”

     An investigation was launched by Miami-Dade police department director Stephanie V. Daniels. During a post-game media conference, Hill was told of her decision to place an officer on administrative duties while “the investigation is conducted.” The probe will use body camera footage.

     “I’m committed to transparency and accountability to the community with any situation involving my officers,” Daniels said.

     In Louisville, Scheffler won justice against an officer when his lawyers spoke. The same will happen for Hill. “That should tell you everything you need to know, then,” Hill said of Daniels. “I’m just glad my teammates were there to support me in my situation because I felt alone. When they showed up, it made me realize that we have a f---ing good team this year, for them to put their life on the line. It was amazing to see.”

     The most important man is Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, a soul who turns Hill loose in a rambunctious passing attack. How patient will he be? “Especially for some of the guys involved — Calais Campbell and Jonnu (Smith), they were all pretty rattled,” he said. “I think you try to prepare a team to handle the unknown. You definitely aren't forecasting exact situations. A lot of things fall under the veil of adversity and the one common denominator is that there's a light at the end of the tunnel in any sort of life adversity. You're not necessarily prepared for that, but neither were our teammates that were in need. So, we just do our best.”

     Earlier this year, Hill was sued by an influencer for battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. Chris Grier, general manager of the Dolphins, tried to protect his star receiver while knowing what he’s facing. “We were made aware of it,” he said. “We’re in communication with NFL security. For us, Tyreek has been a good addition, and in terms of all the off-field stuff, we’ll get all the information before we can really comment on it.”

     The influencer, Sophie Hall, said Hill was “humiliated” and charged at her “violently and with great force … so great that she sustained a right leg fracture, necessitating surgery with metal hardware implantation.”

     Her comments were in the offseason. Now we’re in the regular season.

     What’s next?

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.