National Football League

Dolphins' Calais Campbell recounts being detained with Tyreek Hill

Updated Sep. 9, 2024 3:19 p.m. ET

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Veteran Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Calais Campbell was about to turn into the players' parking lot at Hard Rock Stadium and embark on his 17th season in the NFL when he noticed a commotion blocking the turn lane outside the venue. At first, he thought a car may have crashed.

But when Campbell got closer, he quickly realized that he was watching his superstar teammate Tyreek Hill get handcuffed by several police officers. Campbell shared the story with his close friend Emmanuel Acho and the rest of the crew on Monday morning's edition of FS1's "The Facility."

"I'm like, ‘Hold on, that’s Tyreek,'" Campbell said. "I pulled over and I was just gonna sit there and kind of observe for a while, and then I saw an officer use, like, unnecessary force. So I get out, like, ‘Hey, hold on. This is Tyreek Hill. This is my friend. What’s going on here?'"

Hill and Campbell were both eventually handcuffed and released. Hill was issued two citations, one for dangerous driving and one for a seatbelt violation, according to ESPN. Campbell was not cited.

"It was a crazy situation that was not necessary," Campbell said.

[Related: Officer placed on leave after detaining Dolphins' Tyreek Hill before season opener]

Campbell, who is listed at 6-foot-8 and 307 pounds, said he walked up slowly to the officers with his hands up to indicate he was no type of threat. 

"I definitely had a natural instinct that this could be really bad, really quickly," Campbell said. "I genuinely believe that me being there helped the cop, because there was one officer that was, I think, acting irrational and erratic. … When I was younger, my pops always told me, 'You're a big dude, you have to make sure people understand you don't threaten. Because officers, first thing is, they want to make sure their safety isn't threatened.' 

"So I've always approached every situation making sure I'm not a threat. But I knew that this is not OK, and I have to do something. I wanted to be there and support my guy. I won't say that felt like my life was in danger. But when [this officer] walked up to me, you know, and he was hostile, I definitely had like a moment there where like, ‘I gotta make sure he knows I am not a threat, so my life does not become in danger, because this guy is not thinking clearly.’"

Campbell said he backed up after being commanded by the officer who approached him and called Dolphins team security to let them know that Hill was being detained. Eventually, the officer told Campbell he had to leave the scene entirely, to which the 38-year-old responded that he was not going to do so, especially as he could hear Hill in the distance asking him to stay nearby. The officer then told Campbell to return to his car.

"[I said,] ‘That's fine, I'll go to my car, but I'm not gonna leave," Campbell recalled. "And I guess [the officer] felt some kind of way about me not leaving, so he's like, ‘That’s enough. You're under arrest, too.' … He really just detained me, put me in handcuffs for like five minutes, took them off and told me I was just detained and released, and it was resolved. But Tyreek was in handcuffs for like 20 more minutes from when I [arrived] there."

Campbell said the incident ended when Dolphins team security and some other police officers pulled up and "were able to squash everything." At that point, fellow Dolphins veterans Jonnu Smith and Odell Beckham Jr. had arrived on the scene, and Hill's agent Drew Rosenhaus showed up shortly after as well. 

Campbell said the same officer who approached and detained him was "instigating everything" and being "overly aggressive" towards Hill.

Calais Campbell on him and Tyreek Hill being detained by police before kickoff | The Facility

"I feel like [that] was the best thing that could happen, because it allowed Tyreek to calm down, all the other officers to calm down. And when the officer came to me, and told me to back up, of course, I'm complying and doing everything he told me to do. … But I just wanted to understand what was going on. Because this is my friend here who is getting ready to play a game. He's our best player.

"I didn't think Tyreek was gonna play after going through that situation. As you can imagine, he was flustered, emotional, scared, he even said he wasn't gonna play. I was like, ‘I understand.’ To go through that, it's hard for anybody to get back into a football mindset."

Hill eventually changed his mind and ended up playing in Sunday's 20-17 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Campbell, who also played, credited Rosenhaus with helping calm Hill down and get him back into that mindset after the superstar wide receiver entered the locker room still "flustered" and sat at his locker for "a long time" before warming up. Hill ended up with seven catches for 130 receiving yards, including an 80-yard touchdown catch — which he celebrated by mimicking being handcuffed.

"I know it definitely affected him, but he went out there and balled, man, that's spectacular," Campbell said. "He's a incredible guy."

Campbell, who won the 2019 Walter Payton Man of the Year award for his charitable efforts and is extremely respected in league circles, also said he had to settle himself after the incident.

"It was hard for me because I had never been in handcuffs before," Campbell said. "My first time in handcuffs in my life, and I'm like, I didn't even do anything wrong, I definitely was feeling a certain kind of way myself, super emotional. I had to kind of just kind of let myself relax. It definitely messed up my preparation, the way I would prepare for a game, but thankfully, we were able to settle down and relax and play some good football."

By the time Hill and Campbell returned to the locker room after the game, word had come down that the Miami-Dade Police Department had started an investigation and one officer had already been placed on administrative leave.

Campbell told reporters Sunday upon hearing the news, "That makes sense based on the situation."

It's unconfirmed at this time whether the officer placed on leave is the same one Campbell described as "agitating" and "extremely aggressive" in Monday's interview.

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