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In what should be a concerning, if not all-too-familiar, development for the league, the top story in the NFL has to do with domestic violence, not the draft.
Before the Arizona Cardinals made Kyler Murray the No. 1 pick of the first round, an audio recording of Kansas City Chiefs wideout Tyreek Hill allegedly discussing child abuse and threatening the mother of his son, Crystal Espinal, was released by KCTV5.
According to the station, the recording, which was made at Dubai’s international airport in March, was an “insurance policy” for Espinal.
In the audio, a male who is alleged to be Hill denies physically abusing a male child. (The couple’s son suffered a broken arm and Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said “we believe a crime has occurred’ but no charges have been filed due to lack of evidence.)
Here’s the conversation in the tape:
“I didn’t do nothing,” the man says. “That’s sad. That’s sad, bro.”
“Then why does he say ‘Daddy did it’? Why?” the woman responds.
“He says Daddy does a lot of things,” the man says.
“A 3-year old is not going to lie about what happened to his arm.”
Later, the woman says: “He is terrified of you. And you say that he respects you, but it’s not respect.”
“He respects me,” the man says.
“He is terrified of you,” she responds.
“You need to be terrified of me, too, b*tch,” he tells her. “That’s why you can’t keep a f*cking man.”
Johnson County prosecutor Steve Howe is currently reviewing the audio so it’s possible a criminal investigation into the child’s broken arm will be re-opened.
Following the audio being made public, the Chiefs acted quickly and general manager Brett Veach announced that Hill “will not take part in any team activities” for the foreseeable future.
“In light of the thing that transpired tonight I did think it was appropriate to address the media on behalf of the organization,” Veach said. “Earlier this evening we were made aware of the audio between Tyreek and Crystal [Espinal] … in real time just the like general public,” Veach said. “We were deeply disturbed by what we heard, deeply concerned. Obviously we had great concern for Crystal we are greatly concerned for Tyreek, but our main focus and our main concern is with the young child. As soon as the draft concluded after the last pick I had the chance to call Drew Rosenhaus and we decided that at this time and for the foreseeable future Tyreek Hill will not take part in any team activities. We are going to gather more information we’re going to evaluate this information and we will make the right decision regarding Tyreek Hill.”
The Chiefs did not pick in the first round of the draft last night as their selection went to the Seahawks, so it will be interesting to see if they try to find a replacement/fill-in for Hill in the later rounds.
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