Tyreek Hill – December 7, 2022
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Wednesday, December 7, 2022
WR Tyreek Hill
(Can you describe the energy today getting back on the practice field on a college campus?) – “The energy was great. The team was moving around good. Everything looks usual. Me, I still feel sleepy though. I’m tired.”
(What have you said, or what would you like to say, to QB Tua Tagovailoa in regards to how the last game didn’t go as well as expected and what you expect from him moving forward?) – “I mean, I pretty much can’t say too much. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to play with one of the best quarterbacks in this league. We all have bad games. We’re all human. We all go through certain stuff. My message to him is just come out refocused and a lot of people forget about what you did last game when you go out here and throw for six touchdowns or something crazy, and it all be forgotten. I’ve dropped a crazy amount of passes in my career, but my whole focus and the way that my parents raised me is you can’t be great and dwell on the past or whatever. You got to be able to move on. Tua has been great about that. He’s definitely a hard worker.”
(People say that you’re the reason for QB Tua Tagovailoa’s success. What do you say that?) – “Nah. I don’t say nothing to that, bro. I’m not the reason for his success. The head coach…”
(How so?) – “I mean, (anyone) who put together a 700-play clip, they got time on their hands. (laughter) They got some time on their hands because I’m not going to do that. I’ll sit here and say you can do this and do that. But I’m not going to just sit here and put a clip of 700 plays in and we’re going to watch it. Tua is already special. This whole organization knew it. But that’s just the inside. You just got to get the outside people to believe in it, and they’re starting to believe in him.”
(What do you think about being reunited with T Eric Fisher?) – “It’s great. As soon as I saw him I was like, ‘bro, do you remember our handshake?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, bro.’ So fun times with him. My son is a huge fan of Eric Fisher. So my son, the first thing he said was like, ‘Hey, Big Fish.’ Because when I played in Kansas City, me and ‘Fish’ were neighbors. And my son used to go to his house and hang out and stuff with ‘Big Fish.’ So I love having ‘Big Fish,’ man. He’s like a big brother to me and he’s definitely going to help this team in a positive way. So just his character, he was drafted number one overall, so he’s just a locker room guy for this team.”
(I want to take it back to like March when you were first traded here and signed that contract. Coming into this locker room the highest paid guy on the team, essentially a locker room full of strangers, was there something you said to the guys when you got here to help break that tension?) – “I walked into the locker room and I said I’m him. I looked at everybody, I said ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) I’m going at you day one training camp. Day one, I said ‘I’m going at you on day one in training camp.’ That’s me. Nah, I didn’t say that, for real. (laughter) I kind of knew some of the guys on the team already because you know how NFL guys are, they hang out during the offseason and they train together, so there was no tension or nothing like that. I came in, who I am, a fun guy to be around, trying to be the best teammate I can be and just help this team win and grow and show the guys how I got to where I am. Just trying to be big brother for all of them, especially to the younger wide outs, because outside of football, we all have goals that we want to reach. I try to be that mentor for those guys as much as I can.”
(There’s a Sunday Night Football game followed by a Saturday night national TV game. The networks are scrambling to put the Dolphins on TV. Does that create more pressure for you to come up with new celebrations?) – “Oh, no. Not at all. We make sure that we got time to practice those. So whenever we’re in meetings and stuff like that, we just find crazy playtime, ‘ Like hey, bro, I was thinking of this celebration. What do you think of it?’ And we just practice it there in the meeting. We got plenty of time to practice that.”
(Have you seen the waddle celebration in the World Cup?) – “Those things been going crazy, huh? So yeah. We got to get (Jaylen) Waddle in the end zone. Huh? How about that?”
(What’s the tattoo on your right leg?) – “Right here? So my tattoo on my right leg, I got all the fast guys. I got Dash. I got Flash. I got Sonic the Hedgehog. And then I got my favorite character of them all – he’s not fast, but he’s like a bully. His name is King Pin. Do you know who King Pin is? Batman, the big dude. He’s big and he smokes a cigar with a cane. Yeah, him. That’s my favorite character of all time. He’s like a menace.”
(You got a cheetah somewhere?) – “Yeah, I got a cheetah on the back of my leg too.”
(Is there anything that you guys are going to do in your free time in LA? Bond and spend time together?) – “Well, I mean, I flew my whole family out here. I got about 15 people out here. Basically the people that I live with. I told myself I couldn’t go a week without seeing my kids, without seeing my mom, my dad, my stepdad, my sister. I couldn’t go a week without that because my mom, she takes care of me like I’m in middle school. She feeds me, washes my clothes. She does all that for me. So I couldn’t be without that for a week. But as far as spending time with the team, we got a lot of stuff planned as far as like bowling. I believe we got a comedian coming through tonight. So I’m looking forward to that. Get some laughs with the guys and just spending time with each other, having a good time.”
