Dolphins WR Shares NSFW Text That Prompted Return

Tyreek Hill stayed down on the Hard Rock Stadium turf and rolled around in pain after hurting his ankle while being tackled in the first quarter of Monday night’s game against the Tennessee Titans. The Miami Dolphins wide receiver eventually made his way to the sideline and stayed off the field for the remainder of the half.

But the NFL’s receiving yards leader had plenty of motivation to return after halftime.

“It was a lot of pain, man,” Hill said at his postgame press conference. “It sucked…. I came in at halftime, I texted my wife. I was like, ‘This [expletive] hurt. I need an ankle massage tonight,’ and she’s like, ‘You’d better get your a** back in the game, dawg.’ I was like, ‘All right.'”

Message received. Hill was in and out of the game in the second half, though the Dolphins certainly felt his absence whenever he was on the sideline. The top-ranked offense in the NFL in a variety of categories was outgained and, more critically, outscored in a 28-27 home loss to the Titans on Monday Night Football.

Miami took a 27-13 lead with 4:34 remaining in the game after back-to-back Tennessee turnovers. But the Dolphins failed to hold on to that home lead against a team that was four games under .500 and led by a rookie quarterback.

Will Levis connected with DeAndre Hopkins for a touchdown with just under three minutes to go in regulation. Titans coach Mike Vrabel opted to go for two and succeeded, so the three-yard Derrick Henry TD less than a minute of game time later proved to be the game winner.

Before the Titans (5-8) pulled off their comeback, teams down 14 points with under three minutes to go were 0-767 since 2016, according to the Bleacher Report.

“We all get to share the blame, in my opinion, or at least I know the locker room felt 100 percent responsible,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said after the game.

He went on: “I think that’s what you want…. It’s going to be tough to go to sleep tonight, including myself. That’s not something that you can do and expect to win football games, and you can’t. It’s a hard, hard lesson, but no lead is safe. I think that’s one of the tougher parts about it.”

The Dolphins had multiple opportunities to close out the game on offense late, though they struggled without Hill and other injured offensive players, including center Connor Williams. Miami’s seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver finished the night with four receptions for 61 yards, giving him 1,542 on the season as he chases Calvin Johnson Jr.’s record (1,964).

Fans chanted “MVP” after some of his longer catch-and-runs on Monday. The Dolphins wish he could have been healthy enough for more.

“When you have someone like Tyreek go down, it does make it tough, but when you also have a couple of your key o-linemen go down as well, it does hurt the guys up front and sort of the way we operate,” quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said postgame.

Hill said in the aftermath of the loss that when his injury happened he thought it was serious. The former Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs has been hampered with ankle problems throughout the year, he said. Yet, with an extra familial push, he still felt up to returning to the game.

Miami (9-4) faces three teams above .500 over its last four games of the regular season. A shot at the AFC’s No. 1 seed is still in play. Having the league’s top pass catcher this season on the field for a playoff push would be ideal. But the exact extent of the injury, and whether the receiver will miss more time, was unclear on Tuesday morning.

Hill said after the game the idea of sitting out games isn’t part of his mindset, though he will listen to what the medical professionals tell him.

“You know what, man, that’s never a question in my head,” he said about missing games. “That’s never something that I would be thinking about. But if the trainers come to me, if they see something in the scans whenever I get these scans, they say, ‘Hey, Reek, you can sit out,’ I do it.

“But me being me, I don’t want to sit out. I want to be able to help this team any way I can, and that’s just who I am. I just don’t want to miss any games.”