MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Tyreek Hill has spent the past week trying to stay positive.
The Miami Dolphins receiver rushed home from practice last Wednesday as firefighters doused the roof of his burning South Florida home with water. Officials later found the fire was started by a child playing with a cigarette lighter in a bedroom.
Hill said he and his family are safe, and that's the most important thing.
“The way that I look at it is I’m not the only person in the world having a bad day,” Hill said Thursday, speaking publicly for the first time since the fire. "God has blessed me with great things, and I have a great support system with teammates and family and stuff like that. I just always try to look at the positive side of things. Although it sucks to see rooms destroyed and everything that you worked for destroyed — it sucks — but my main thing was health, making sure my kids are all right. And yeah, this gives me and my wife a chance to get closer.”
Hill added that he doesn't know when he and his family will be able to move back into the $6.9 million home. For now, his focus is on the Dolphins' trip to Arrowhead Stadium to face his former team, the Kansas City Chiefs, in a wild-card game Saturday night.
Hill spent the first six seasons of his eight-year career with Kansas City, racking up 6,630 receiving yards on 479 catches, with 56 touchdowns. He won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs after the 2019 season and was a first-team All-Pro three times, including his rookie season in 2016.
Miami lost to Kansas City 21-14 when the teams met in Germany in Week 9, and Hill expressed then his disappointment that he wasn't facing his old team at Arrowhead Stadium, where he remembers Chiefs fans chanting his name in a Thursday night game against the Raiders when he was a rookie.
“That was a very special moment for me,” Hill said. "Because as a kid, that’s what you grow up visualizing in your head: ‘Man, I’m going to have moments like that.’ For that to happen to me, it was a very special moment.”
Hill said he's experienced enough that he's treating Saturday night like any other game. As for the reaction he'll receive from Kansas City fans, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is expecting a conditional warm welcome.
“I expect KC to give him nothing but love,” Kelce said, “until he's putting up the peace sign or something like that. Then he might hear a few boos.”
Hill's former teammates know the challenge of defending his speed, having seen him flash the peace sign at countless defenders after breaking free for touchdowns. Hill was the NFL's leading receiver in yardage with 1,799 and touchdowns with 13, and he will try to help the Dolphins win their first playoff game since Dec. 30, 2000, when they beat the Colts in overtime.
Miami has won all three of its playoff games against the Chiefs, two wild-card matchups and a divisional-round game in 1971 that went to double overtime and remains the longest game in NFL history. To keep that streak going, the Dolphins will need to perform in frigid conditions. The temperature at kickoff is expected to be in the single digits with a wind chill well below zero.
“No one likes being cold. That’s why we have temperature control,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said. “However, it does make the moment bigger when you know that it is an absolute fact that it’s going to be frigid. Well, what if as a team, you find a way for it to not affect you?"
Hill said he'll go sleeveless for the game and won't let the cold weather bother him. He'll encourage his teammates have the same mindset.
As for his former teammates, Hill keeps in touch when he can.
“I haven’t texted (Patrick) Mahomes since they beat our (butts)," Hill said. “I texted Kelce but he still hasn’t texted me back. He’s probably still on his Taylor Swift thing. Those guys are too famous for me now, I guess.”
NOTES: Starting safeties Jevon Holland (knees) and DeShon Elliot (calf) are expected to be game-time decisions on Saturday. Neither player was seen during the portion of Thursday's practice open to the media. ... CB Xavien Howard (foot) has been ruled out. ... WR Jaylen Waddle (ankle) and RB Raheem Mostert (knee/ankle) are questionable. Both were limited in practice all week.
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