HEADLINE

Goodell: NFL action on Hill secondary to child’s welfare

Field Level Media

May 22, 2019 at 5:26 pm.

Pro Bowl wide receiver Tyreek Hill remains away from the Kansas City Chiefs as authorities investigate allegations of child abuse, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league has not been in touch with Hill as that process continues.

“We will not interfere with that,” Goodell said Wednesday at league meetings in Florida.

“The priority is the young child. We will obviously be cooperative with whatever the court wants. We are prepared to go ahead and have an interview whenever we have the permission to do so, and then we’ll go ahead and make a determination based on what information we have at that time.”

Specifically, Goodell said any disciplinary action from the NFL will wait until the investigation concludes.

Last month, the district attorney’s office in Johnson County, Kan., declined to press charges against Hill or his fiancee, Crystal Espinal, after an incident in which their young son suffered a broken arm.

But days later, an audiotape emerged in which Espinal accuses Hill of breaking the boy’s arm, and he threatens her in return. The Chiefs banned Hill, 25, from participating in team activities but did not cut ties with him, and the Kansas Department for Children and Families and local law enforcement reopened their investigations.