Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill defended his end-of-season comments, telling Twitch viewers that he “deserves” to feel frustrated after an 8-9 season. The panel ESPN’s First Take doesn’t want to hear it, though.
In a segment on Monday morning, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Ryan Clark, Dan Orlovsky, and Shannon Sharpe tore into the eight-time Pro Bowl receiver for his comments.
While Smith centered much of his criticism around the actions that led Hill to get traded from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Dolphins, Sharpe and Clark took issue with Hill’s decision to pull himself out of action in the second half of Miami’s Week 18 loss to the New York Jets.
“I don’t want to hear nothing Tyreek Hill got to say,” Sharpe said. “Tyreek Hill quit on his team in the fourth quarter. I don’t want to hear nothing about frustration. I don’t want to hear nothing about no dogs. Because you weren’t a dog in the fourth quarter. Jaylen Waddle asked you ‘Reek, you done?’ You quit! Was that about your family? Was that about being a dog?
“I don’t want to hear a damn thing Tyreek Hill is saying, because Tyreek Hill quit on his team no different than what [De’Vondre] Campbell did to the San Francisco 49ers. … Everybody that’s played this game has been frustrated. Tom Brady, the greatest player to play this game, he’s been frustrated. But he didn’t quit. You quit! Simple as that. … It disqualifies everything you said after that.”
“Tyreek Hill is no different than a million other dudes that did exactly what we were blessed to do,” Clark later added. “The difference is — when we were 7-8 or when we were 8-8 or we were getting blown out — I said to myself I’m going to dig my heels in, I’m going to run downhill, and I’m going to hit everybody in the facemask until the clock strikes zero, because that’s what I can control.
“What Tyreek could’ve controlled, no matter if [Tyler] Huntley was at quarterback or Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback, was to run his route as hard as he possibly could, was to block as he possibly could. He can’t do none of that from the sideline.”
“Bro, I don’t want to hear nothing, because you made it about you,” Sharpe later said. “Keep the focus on you. Talk about you not taking your butt back in that game.”
In a season-wrap press conference, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel told reporters that he met with Hill and expressed “that it’s not acceptable to leave a game and won’t be tolerated in the future.”
