Tyreek Hill Asked an Important Question

After Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill was handcuffed by police before being released to play in the season opener, he had one big question at a press conference later on: "What if I wasn't Tyreek Hill?" Writing for the Washington Post, Candace Buckner's reaction to that question is, "Do we really have to wonder?" Surely, Hill's day would have been much worse, she writes. Buckner offers up the example not only of Hill, but of golfer Scottie Scheffler, who was arrested in May outside the PGA Championship venue in Kentucky. In both cases involving "athletes with loads of fame, armies of adoring fans, and more money than they can ever spend," the athletes saw quick investigations into what had happened, and even treatment that might raise eyebrows—Scheffler, for instance, said a police officer offered him a sandwich as his fingerprints were being taken.

Buckner acknowledges the racial element in Hill's case; he's Black, while Scheffler is white. "This is a real and familiar nightmare for many Black men in America," she writes. "He might be Tyreek Hill, but even he was grabbed by a police officer just below his neck and forced down." The fact of the matter is, however, that "the famous athletes received treatment after their encounters that citizens of lesser status and in lower tax brackets would not." As for Hill after his incident? "He might even end up filming a public service announcement with Miami-Dade police about safe driving," Buckner writes. "Hill, a somebody in the NFL, doesn't have to live with a more disturbing alternative." Read the full column. (Hill celebrated a touchdown on Sunday by mimicking his run-in with police.)