The statement issued, but likely not written, by Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill on Thursday said everything that it predictably would have said, carefully omitting anything that addresses whether his three-year-old child suffered an injury, or how the injury happened. Many nevertheless thought that ended the situation.
And it has now become clear that the situation is only just beginning.
KCTV has obtained audio of a conversation between Hill and Crystal Espinal, the mother of their son. Espinal created the audio as an “insurance policy” that she gave to a friend. It was “passed around” before landing at KCTV.
The audio is compelling. And troubling.
“He is terrified of you,” Espinal says. “And you say that he respects you, but it’s not respect.”
Hill says, “He respects me.”
“It’s terrify,” she says, “he’s terrified of you.”
“You need to be terrified of me, too, bitch,” Hill says. “That’s why you can’t keep a f--king man.”
Hill previously pleaded guilty to choking and punching Espinal while she was pregnant with the child.
The audio makes it clear that Espinal had previously been covering for Hill.
“I didn’t do nothing,” Hill insists during the discussion about the injury suffered by Hill’s son.
“Then why does [he] say, ‘Daddy did it’?” Espinal says. “Why does [he] say, ‘Daddy did it’?”
“I don’t know,” Hill says. “He says Daddy does a lot of things.”
“Like what?” Espinal says. “A three-year-old’s not gonna lie about what happened to his arm.”
Someone clearly has been lying about what happened to the boy’s arm. And it’s clear that other things have happened; on the audio, Espinal says that Hill punches the boy in the chest when the boy is crying. She also says that the boy has told investigators, “Daddy punches me.”
The audio is difficult to listen to, and it confirms exactly what many suspected on Wednesday, when the prosecutor announced that he believes a crime was committed, but that it could not be proven who did it. This audio potentially changes everything, for the authorities, for the league, and for the Chiefs -- who if they do what they did with Kareem Hunt could be cutting ties with Tyreek Hill, soon.