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Dan Le Batard is accusing HBO’s Hard Knocks show of “sportswashing” Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill’s reputation by ignoring his past and current legal issues.
Hill, an unquestionable talent, was on his way to a career-year before suffering an ankle injury that caused him to miss the Fins’ Week 15 game.
He had already become the first player in the Super Bowl era to achieve the feat of 1,000 receiving yards by the eighth game of the season this year. Many pundits also believed that, until his injury, Tyreek Hill had a very real shot at becoming the first player to surpass 2,000 yards receiving in a single season.
So it is certainly understandable why HBO’s Hard Knocks, which featured the Dolphins in the mid-season portion of the show, would heavily focus on the star wide receiver.
What Dan Le Batard doesn’t understand, or at the very least agree with, is how Tyreek Hill, the person, has been portrayed on the show.
“Tyreek Hill came here to get stardom and to ‘sportswash’ some of his past, and he’s largely done that,” Le Batard said on Thursday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “He is a star, talking about him for MVP, and very few people bring up horrifying details of his domestic abuse past. It seems like sports has moved on to celebrate Tyreek Hill for being super fast. And we moved on, like him, fast.”
Le Batard then brought up the episode of Hard Knocks which featured Hill getting married to his girlfriend Keeta Vaccaro during the team’s bye week.
“The optics were chef’s kiss,” Le Batard said. “If I were his agent or anyone who cared about Tyreek Hill, that’s what I would want. Go into his living room, watch him connecting with his new bride. Tell the story of love and don’t touch too much on anything from that past.
“But now you’re seeing reports of two paternity suits, three children in this year, and seven children overall, and I’m asking you genuinely as this whole climate of media and documentary changes so that the access… what you get in exchange for Tyreek Hill and access to him is you’re going to tell the story the way he wants it told, the way the way the NFL wants it told.”
Le Batard is not wrong.
He also doesn’t mention the fact that Tyreek Hill allegedly slapped a 57-year-old fishing charter company employee on Father’s Day in 2022. That incident ended in a settlement which was announced two days before the start of training camp.
Nor did Le Batard mention the fact that Hill was investigated for alleged battery after an incident in which his three-year-old son sustained a broken arm. He was not charged with any crime, but his son was temporarily placed into custody of child services.
Nor did he bring up the fact that in 2014, Tyreek Hill was arrested and pleaded guilty to charges of domestic assault and battery by strangulation of his then 20-year-old pregnant girlfriend – charges that resulted in him being kicked off the Oklahoma State football team.