Jan 12, 2019; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) looses his shoe while running the ball against Indianapolis Colts linebacker Skai Moore (55) during the third quarter in an AFC Divisional playoff football game at Arrowhead Stadium. Photo Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill will not be punished under the personal conduct policy as the NFL closed its formal investigation into multiple alleged physical altercations.
Hill pleaded guilty to an assault and battery charge in 2015 but a full version of an audio recording aired recently revealed Hill denying assaulting his fiancée.
“Based on the evidence presently available, the NFL cannot conclude that Mr. Hill violated the Personal Conduct Policy,” the statement reads.
“Accordingly, he may attend Kansas City’s training camp and participate in all club activities. He has been and will continue to be subject to conditions set forth by the District Court, Commissioner [Roger] Goodell, and the Chiefs, which include clinical evaluation and therapeutic intervention.”
The Chiefs announced in late April that Hill has been barred from team activities. In three seasons with the Chiefs after he was a fifth-round draft choice out of West Alabama in 2016, Hill has 223 catches for 3,255 yards and 25 touchdowns.
In the recently released recording, played by 610 KCSP radio, Hill is heard telling Crystal Espinal that he “didn’t touch you in 2014.”
“You f—ing ruined my life and you lied on me in 2014,” Hill told Espinal. “I’m still not over that. I didn’t touch you in 2014.
“You lied on me in 2014. If you want to rewind that night, we can rewind that night, too. You was in my house. And did I pick you up and slam you? Hell no. I picked you up and put you out my door and after that you left.”
In August 2015, eight months after his arrest, Hill entered a guilty plea to domestic assault and battery by strangulation for allegedly punching and choking Espinal, who was pregnant at the time.
While entering his plea, Hill told a judge that he “did something I shouldn’t have done” and that “I let my feelings take control of me,” according to ESPN’s reporting.
Kansas City television station KCTV aired another audio recording, believed to have been made as Hill and Espina were in Dubai’s international airport, that spurred the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office to take a second look at a possible criminal case involving injuries to the couple’s 3-year-old son.
The television station said it received the audio from “someone who is concerned about the welfare of the couple’s child.”
When police responded to their home previously, there were signs that a crime had been committed against the child, but the District Attorney’s Office said it would not have been able to prove who did it.
In the 11-minute audio file released in April, Espinal is heard telling Hill that the boy said “Daddy did it,” referring to an injury to the child’s arm.
The league left the door open for potential discipline down the line, saying “If further information becomes available through law enforcement, the pending court proceeding, or other sources, we will promptly consider it and take all appropriate steps at that time.”
