MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The abnormal has long been normal for the Miami Dolphins.
Since the turn of the century, they have been featured more often on TMZ than in the postseason.
This is the franchise of Richie Incognito and Chris Foerster, of Kenny Stills and Brian Flores.
Stephen Ross’ Dolphins can’t help but make national news. And they were back in their natural habitat this week after Miami-Dade police cuffed and roughed up wide receiver Tyreek Hill outside of Hard Rock Stadium.
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In the short time since, the Dolphins — and Hill in particular — are everywhere. He even sat for an interview with CNN during the 9 p.m. hour Monday night.
They are in the middle of a tempest not of their making. And the timing couldn’t be worse.
The Dolphins have become the new avatars in our nation’s ongoing culture war at the same time they are preparing for perhaps their most important game of the year — on a short week, no less.
The Buffalo Bills are on their way, and Sean McDermott’s bunch couldn’t care less that Hill spent part of his Sunday in handcuffs. Buffalo has won 11 of its last 12 games against Miami and will accept any help to continue that mastery.
So this week might prove whether distractions are real. Most coaches try to go out of their way avoid them. The Dolphins are seemingly embracing this one.
“We don’t avoid the obvious,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said Tuesday. “It’s a thing. Let it be what it is, let it take its course. I think when we start to brush that away and think that this football thing is the most important thing to us when, you know, this isn’t just something that Tyreek has gone through.
“This is something that people in general go through. That’s a life thing, you know. Football, we’re blessed to do this, we’re blessed to, to be able to play this sport. We’re blessed to make all this money to do what we love, and it’s for fun. But that’s real life. No games in that, brotha.”
Tua Tagovailoa reacts to the Tyreek Hill body cam footage pic.twitter.com/nVskoO3guz
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) September 10, 2024
The Dolphins’ High Stakes
Tagovailoa has joined Hill and other Dolphins leaders in crafting a plan to use this ugly incident to enact positive change.
Those plans probably should wait until Friday.
The Dolphins and Bills are still in the first steps of a season-long race for the AFC East crown. But the loser of Thursday’s game will be down a game and the tiebreaker and will need to wait two weeks for a chance of payback.
The Dolphins’ best-case scenario? They channel their raw emotions, rally around Hill, and go slay their division’s giant. They did that Sunday against the Jaguars just two and a half hours after Hill was in cuffs.
But the hay was in the barn at that point. Hill’s detainment didn’t impact their preparation in a way it might have this week. Plus many Dolphins players and coaches didn’t really grasp the gravity of what went down outside the stadium until after the game.
“There weren’t really a lot of discussions about it,” Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said. “Having now seen the video, obviously it’s triggering for a number of reasons.
“But the one thing I do know is, I know all parties involved on our end from my football family and just know who they are as men. How my judgment and my feelings about them isn’t formed through opinion. It’s formed through experience and daily interactions with them.”
This week has been an experience for that group like no other. How they respond to it will go a long way in determining if their 2024 season is remembered for anything better than an overzealous traffic stop.