Vacuum OFF: What to do
About Tyreek Hill?
by David Perkins
by David Perkins | April 29, 2019
What to do about Tyreek Hill? That is the $1 million question floating around Arrowhead Drive and throughout Chiefs Kingdom right now. The draft has given us a reprieve but that is only for the short-term.
Fans are disgusted and heartbroken and at a crossroads, and the team is too. There are so many competing factors to consider: public relations, community welfare, Kareem, lost investment of time, child welfare, locker room atmosphere, public image. But the question prevails: What to do?
This article is intended to answer that specific question. You may not agree, but it is an answer nonetheless.
What We Know
What we know is best answered by looking at what we do not know, and to quote Ygritte from Game of Thrones “You know nothing Jon Snow”. And that is true. We are the public, we are outsiders, we do not have access to police records, and unless one of us is Bran Stark or the 3 eyed Raven, we do not know the truth. So truly, we know nothing. And we should rest in that fact. We have more important things to do with our lives than speculate over the unknown which will remain unknown.
Making Life Choices
Life is comprised of thousands of choices made every single day. Some get us closer to, or further from, our goals, some intentional and others unintentional. Some choices are healthy and others unhealthy (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually). Not getting in a car loaded with drunk teens may have saved your life. Getting a swastika tattoo on your forehead might have limited your career path. Choices. Good, bad and ugly.
Disregarding ALL factors, and in the most simplest of terms, it appears Tyreek made a bad choice(s).
(and before your head explodes I said “disregarding ALL factors” and I meant it)
Where do we go from here?
We know nothing and Hill made a bad choice. That may be the story of your life at 25. Knowing nothing and making a bad choice. Star athletes get their life published to the world instantaneously. Luckily for us Joe Schmoes, we do not. Do you want your bad choices published for all to see? Likely not.
What Are the Solutions
Kansas Child Protective Services, Johnson County DA, Overland Park PD, the NFL and the Chiefs each have decisions to make, and each will believe their decision is the best. For someone. The child. The fiancé. The player. But will it be? Are those decisions/choices the best for the people involved, or the best decision/choice, the jurisdiction/governing body can make for itself or is empowered to make?
The State Will Do It’s Thing
The state will do what it wants to do, is empowered to do, anything to seemingly bring justice to the forefront. Anything to “save the child” and on the side, get elected. But will it?
The NFL Will Do It’s Thing
Given the recent cases of Foster, Hunt, Peterson, and Rice. Who knows? The NFL makes decisions based upon TV ratings anyway.
The Chiefs Solution Is…
Release: is what some fans want. Wait: is what other fans want. Memories of Kareem Hunt lurk in the nearness. Public opinion. Super Bowls. Community involvement. Public image. Darn if you do and darn if you don’t. Outright releasing Hill does not solve anything. ANYTHING. Especially for Hill or the child. An outright release is simply moving on, putting the past in the past. Nothing solved.
My Solution for the Chiefs
If I could influence the Chiefs decision, this is what it would be:
1) Suspend Hill for the rest of 2019. Eat the $2 million salary, it is charged against the cap anyway.
2) Get Tyreek help in the secular world, but make sure the fiancé is included. She is just as much a part of this as Tyreek is. Monitor the progress.
3) Unsuspend Hill after the 2019 season but before the new NFL year starts in March 2020.
4) Decide then whether to sign him to a new contract – a 1 year prove it deal — or simply let him be a free agent, but do not release him.
This allows Hill to “prove” he is “clean” or “reformed” for 2 years before the outlaying a large contract, or to prove he is unworthy; and the same 2 years for the Chiefs to prove they don’t need him and simply walk away (and walking away may happen after 1 year). This solution satisfies the fan who does not want a Kareem Hunt repeat, wherein a charlatan swoops in and grabs a player for nothing and probably short circuits the rehabilitation process.
My Solution for the Child
The boy needs his parents but not in a toxic environment, and to have a healthy environment, changes need to be made by both parents.
My Solution for Hill
Tyreek, the man, is at a crossroads, and must make decisions. What type of man do I want to be? What type of father do I want to be? What type of husband do I want to be? Answering the first question answers the second and third questions.
Hill can get more counseling and it might help with behavior responses and reactions to the world happening around him. But he had counseling before and it apparently did not have a lasting effect.
Wikipedia mentions Hill was raised by his mother. The omission of mention of a father, indicates there was none in his life. No one to mentor him. No strong male influence.
How many times have you heard someone’s life story that went like this: My grandfather was a drunk, my father was a drunk, and I am a drunk. You can substitute any number of other patterns into the sentence and the pattern remains, until it is broken. This is true of rape, incest, abuse, addictions, and the list goes on.
So, counseling (or better yet fatherhood and parenting training) may help Tyreek make better decisions, but will it get to the root of the problem?
The Root of the Problem
The root problem is we live in a broken world. We live in a world of broken and maligned hearts. We live in a world where someone exterminates others, based on skin color and religion. We live in a world where people believe it is acceptable to have sex with minors, then call it a “preference” as if somehow that is better than what it truly is, which is child abuse.
Only One Lasting Solution
Ultimately there is only 1 solution for Tyreek. For society. For any of us. If you want to end child abuse, addictions, destructive hatred, generational abuses, extermination, the brokenness in the world, and so forth, then –
The answer is Jesus.
Ever since the fall, when Adam and Eve bit the apple, we have lived in a broken world. And the only solution which is already offered to us and for us, is to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. Then and only then can we start to live with healed and renewed hearts, and live out of goodness and love toward others, and see their behaviors for what they really are, a broken heart.
May God bless you!
May God bless the Chiefs, Chiefs Kingdom and ArrowheadOne!
and May God bless Tyreek Hill, Crystal Espinal and their child!
David Perkins — ArrowheadOne
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