Patriots Veteran Defender Outraged By Tyreek Hill Incident

The traffic stop incident involving Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill has been top of mind for NFL teams, including the New England Patriots.

Body cam footage of the situation showed police forcibly remove Hill from his car after officers ordered him to put his window back down. Hill was initially stopped for speeding outside of Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday. Officers took Hill to the ground and put a knee in his back before handcuffing the wideout.

The situation drew plenty of reaction and opinions and Patriots veteran defensive tackle Davon Godchaux voiced his thoughts on what happened to MassLive’s Karen Guregian.

“He probably could have handled it a little different, he probably could have rolled the window down,” Godchaux told Guregian on Wednesday. “In his case, though, I can see why he rolled the window up. People were passing by. He didn’t want people to know who he was. He’s Tyreek Hill. He’s famous. A lot of people love him in Miami.”

Hill admitted Wednesday during a press conference that he could have done a better job of complying with police and rolled down his window.

Hill believed the actions the police took after that were inexcusable, though, and the eight-time Pro Bowler called for one of the officers to be fired. Godchaux, who played four seasons with the Dolphins before joining the Patriots in 2021, agreed with Hill.

“That was outrageous. They acted like (Tyreek) murdered somebody,” Godchaux said. “That was uncalled for, jacking him out of the car, putting his hand around his neck to the ground. (Tyreek) said he just had a knee operation or whatever. So it was uncalled for, man. There has to be some type of consequences.

“If not, it’s going to continue to happen. I think Black people in general go through a lot when it comes to police officers, just to do that on game day. Tyreek probably could have rolled his window down, but all of the stuff the cop did was unnecessary.”

First-year Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo didn’t go into his feelings about the incident like Godchaux. Mayo told reporters he discussed the incident with the team’s captains and let that respected group handle addressing the situation in the Patriots locker room.