National Football League

Keyshawn Johnson on Tyreek Hill incident, what he tells his son about police encounters

Updated Sep. 12, 2024 6:28 p.m. ET

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Keyshawn Johnson can somewhat relate to the experience that Tyreek Hill went through when cited for a traffic violation ahead of the Miami Dolphins' game on Sunday.

The former NFL star shared on the most recent episode of his podcast, "All Facts, No Brakes," that he had situations with the police when driving to the stadium ahead of a game when he was a player. 

"They all should be fired!" Keyshawn reacts to Tyreek Hill bodycam footage

"I've been pulled over in stadiums before, in Tampa, Florida, driving through a barricade," Johnson said. "I'm late. I'm trying to get there, trying to get to the stadium because I'm late. Dude [is] telling me I can't go, go around. I'm like, ‘Man, come on. Do you know who I am? You just want to pull rank in power. I'm just gonna go right past you. I'll deal with it when I get into the stadium.'"

Hill tried to do something similar on Sunday, but was met with a show of force from police officers. After getting pulled over for the violation, Hill was pulled out of his car and thrown to the ground by police before getting handcuffed, body camera footage of the incident showed. 

Hill had also given the police officer his driver's license before being pulled out of the car, but rolled his window up, prompting officers to escalate the situation first by banging on his window, then ordering him out of the car and eventually dragging him out of his car themselves. Still, Johnson understood where Hill was coming from due to his past experiences. 

"Video says a lot," Johnson said. "Once I saw the video, I still believe that the police officers overreacted to a whole other level. Tyreek gave him his driver's license. He rolled down the window. He gave it to him. He rolled [the window] back up, because he just wants to get his ticket. I don't need to hold no conversation with you. I gave you my driver's license, so you peeped that. You know who I am. 

"So, the dude bamming on his window, Tyreek, like, ‘Dude, why are you bamming on my window?' He's agitating Tyreek. Tyreek agitating him. Tyreek's getting mad now about the fact that he's in a pressure situation, trying to get to the stadium, because he's probably running a little bit late — at the time, he's supposed to actually be in the locker room. He's probably like, 'Man, I gotta get out of here. Man, let's just get my ticket so I can get my mind right to go play.' So it became a confrontation."

More Tyreek Hill coverage:

• Officer placed on leave after detaining Dolphins' Tyreek Hill before season opener
• Body camera video shows officers dragging Dolphins' Tyreek Hill from car
• Dolphins' Calais Campbell recounts being detained with Tyreek Hill
• Dolphins rally around Tyreek Hill as agent calls for officers to be fired
• Tyreek Hill says he could have handled traffic stop better, but still wants officer fired

Hill expressed some regret over his role in the confrontation, believing that if he had kept his window down, tensions might not have risen to the point that they did. Johnson explained that he has adviased his son and podcast co-host, Keyshawn Johnson Jr., that whenever the latter get pulled over, "just do what [the cops] say."

"Just do whatever they say, man," Keyshawn Sr. said. "When you get pulled over, pull into a place where there's a lot of people so everybody can see. Forget if they got the sirens on — if you've got to go an extra block, pull your a-- into the gas station where everybody at, where they can see everywhere, just in case they don't have their bodycams on."

Johnson took exception to the officers pulling Hill out of the car and for how they treated Dolphins players Calais Campbell and Jonnu Smith when they arrived at the scene. Hill was initially forced to lie face-down while being handcuffed and then later pushed to the ground again, while Campbell — a former Walter Payton Man of the Year winner — was also briefly handcuffed even though he was never cited. 

"You can't snatch nobody out of the damn car," Johnson said. "You can't do that. It's a traffic ticket. … Because those police officers probably had that behavior happen in the past, they think they can get away with it any time they want to. 

"It's not like they didn't know who he was. It's Miami. You're at the grounds of the stadium. The police officers are there to make sure the tailgating's going right, nobody's jaywalking drunk. You don't know who Tyreek Hill is? … He's the face of the damn team."

An investigation into the handling of the situation was immediately launched by Miami-Dade Police. An officer, Danny Torres, was moved to administrative duties shortly after, but is seeking to be reinstated. The Dolphins condemned the police's role in the incident in a statement after the bodycam footage was released Monday, saying that they wanted "swift and strong action" against all of the officers involved. Hill also said that the officer who escalated the situation should be fired, too.

"The police were doing too much," Johnson said. "I love police officers. I want to be protected. I want my community to be protected. I want my kids to be protected. I want all those things. I pay taxes. I want those things to take place. … [The police in Miami were] trying to flex their power. I felt like, when Tyreek basically said ‘just give me my ticket and let me go,’ he stripped the officer of that power."

Johnson is happy that the situation didn't end in a tragic result, but expressed some fear that a similar incident could end differently. 

"We see Black men and people of color put in these situations with the police departments all over the world, not just the United States, all over the world," Johnson said. "In the end, good thing it didn't happen the same way it happened in other places, right? Tyreek Hill was able to go play football and he wasn't hurt, so to speak. They had the knee on the back, not the neck. 

"Those are the sort of things that give me the red a-- when I think about stuff like this."

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