Tyreek Hill – August 6, 2024
Download PDF version
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
WR Tyreek Hill
(So what about that leap into the crowd there after…?) – “Just working on my touchdown celebrations, you feel me? And what a day, especially after a beautiful throw down the field by Tua (Tagovailoa), I got excited. I was feeling the energy, so I decided to work on my touchdown celebration. I would rate that one out of 10 a three because I didn’t still stick the landing when I jumped over. So it’s pretty bad.”
(I thought the rep itself was great. What did you see from your perspective on the play?) – “It was beautiful, man. We’ve been trying to hit that all camp against our defense, and unfortunately our defense has been doing a great job of not giving us the correct look. We came out here today, we got the look that we wanted and obviously we executed the play, and Tua threw a – I don’t know what y’all call that. People can no longer say that he can’t throw the ball deep, man, because that right there alone shows his improvement from when I first got here to now. That’s crazy, that’s light years, man. That’s dope, man.”
(First of two joint practices, how’d it feel going out and playing against somebody different?) – “It was good. It was fun to go against somebody else besides hearing Jalen Ramsey chirp all practice, so it’s fun. Going against A.J. Terrell (Jr.), he’s a real good young player in this league, Jessie Bate (III) obviously a really smart guy. They’ve got a real good corps of guys over there, man, so it was a lot of fun today. I had a blast. Offensively, I feel like we took a step forward today, whether it’s catching the ball, whether it’s throwing the ball, whether it’s blocking, we all took a step forward today and we held ourselves accountable in moments whenever we felt the offense going dry. So that’s one thing we really want to hone in on this year – even if we have stale moments, we have to find a way to dig ourselves out of that, and today, we’ve done a great job of that.”
(It was a very eventful 18 hours – Friday night being named the top player in the league, 18 hours later you have the contract restructure. Can you take us through those 18 hours your reaction emotionally to each of those two events?) – “You know what’s crazy man? I didn’t celebrate at all, because here’s why – my family, and I say this to my family, I said, ‘Y’all are so used to me winning and like getting stuff, y’all don’t even celebrate with me no more.’ It’s just like we wake up, ‘Oh, you’re No. 1, congrats,’ and we just move on. ‘Oh, you got an extension,’ and we move on. But my grandparents flew in with me and my wife, obviously we went and celebrated with dinner, celebrated the No. 1 the day we got the contract extension. That’s why I play, man, to reach moments like this. For me to say that – for me to call my shot in 2017 and say that I was going to be the No. 1 player says who I am as a player. I’m always hungry. I’m always trying to find ways to get better – that’s the only way to be in this league. That’s how guys like myself last in the league, trying to get better, trying to help the team win. So I just thank God, I’m grateful to be in this position. I told Coach McDaniel, ‘Man, without you, I’d still be getting ranked No. 15 in Kansas City.’ So it’s awesome to be a part of this, man, with (General Manager) Chris Grier, (Chairman of the Board/Managing General Partner) Mr. Ross, even Tua (Tagovailoa) helping me become a better player. I’m excited, I’m grateful. I won’t never take any of this for granted.”
(When you sign a deal like this and QB Tua Tagovailoa signs a deal like the one he signed, what kind of additional responsibility is heaped onto your shoulders once that deal is signed?) – “It’s a lot man. But at the end of the day, to all of us, the money doesn’t matter. We already had responsibility on our shoulders. We’ve been feeling like this. We’ve got too competitive of a team and too great of guys on this team to not win games and we all know that man. At the end of the day, we all know the money is going to come. The money is going to come whenever. What we are focused on right now is winning game because we got a great group of guys, tremendous leaders on both sides of the ball and you see it each and every day, man. It’s fun to be a part of. The energy out at practice is great, man. You hear guys chirping back and forth – it’s fun. That’s what makes football fun, when brothers are able to chirp in between the lines and then go into the locker room and have a genuine conversation like men. I love it man, I’m absolutely loving it.”
(Bouncing off of what you just said about the chippiness obviously seeing that today, kind of a brawl a little bit. Are you happy to see that, to see the guys get emotional, seeing them love this sport, and obviously trying to get the opportunity to go against another team?) – “Well kind of not. When I say fight, I don’t mean fight fight. Kind of over there on the defense, I really don’t know what happened. So I can’t really speak on it, but it’s good to see guys never back down from anyone, man. That shows a lot – when guys kind of like shy away from confrontation, you feel me? That shows a lot in your character. For the guys that we got on this team, I don’t see many guys doing that. You can see that on the other field, those guys were going at it. It’s a beautiful thing to see man.”
(I got a theory that you guys are the most likable team in the NFL. You score a lot of points, you make the playoffs, you have great touchdown cellys. What do you think about that theory?) – “I think we do, I’m right there with you man. We’ve got some fast guys, some flashy guys, physical guys, whatever you want man. We make everything look good, because people want to see explosive, they want to see dynamic, they want to see big plays down the field. And now that we’ve added ‘OBJ,’ (Odell Beckham Jr.) our celebrations are going to get better. It’s a win-win for us.”
(You’ve mentioned you calling your shot back in 2017. What’s next for you? What’s the next big Everest to climb?) – “What’s the next big step for me? I don’t know. I really haven’t thought about that man. But as the team goes and what I want for this whole team is just to win a playoff game. That’s step one for all of us man. I think that is something we all can build on moving forward, going deeper into the playoffs. That’s something we can live with forever because it hasn’t been done in 23-24 years. For us to be able to do something special like that with this team, we can look back on it 50 years from now when we look back on it and say, ‘Man, we had a great team back in 2024. I remember those practices.’ That’s what I want for this team, that’s what I want for myself – to have moments like that with my brothers because a lot of these guys I came into the league with. We got a lot of veterans on this team. The prior years I’ve been here, it was a real young team, but the year is now. We’ve got guys that I’ve came into the league with, guys that I’ve played with or against and it’s a beautiful thing man. I got a real good relationship with a lot of guys, so I would want that.”
(What do you think of the new kickoff?) – “I think it’s going to be fun. It gives guys like myself when I came in my rookie year a whole another opportunity to create a name for themselves. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a lot of plays made, because I watched it in the, was it in the XFL, correct? I believe it was in the XFL. It’s going to be fun, man. A lot of fast guys are going to get paid off of that. I’d advise people to try to go get like Noah Lyles or something, it would be fun. It’s going to be fun.”
