Cote: Tyreek Hill sheds the handcuffs, leads Miami Dolphins’ comeback win in season opener | Opinion

The Miami Dolphins’ season opener on Sunday began with a most unexpected, unfortunate pregame show: Star receiver Tyreek Hill seen in a video on the ground beside his sports car, surrounded by police, handcuffed behind the back following a traffic stop gone bad.

He was briefly detained, ticketed for reckless driving and released in time to play in the game.

For much of said game, it was the Dolphins offense that might have been arrested for failure to show, a football felony.

There were about 65,582 witnesses to the crime.

For much of the game it was so futile you wanted to look away.

“Offensive to watch,” said one witness of the performance against Jacksonville.

It was Hill who sparked the turnaround. Of course it was. Was this game following a script? One too perfect to believe?

Hill’s 80-yard touchdown catch-and-run from Tua Tagovailoa drew Miami within 17-14 late in the third quarter to awaken what had been a moribund offensive showing — and suddenly what had been a quiet crowd roared to life.

Hill threw the football joyfully into the crowd as he scored and later made a behind-the-back gesture as if breaking free of handcuffs.

Perfect.

“We rallied off the crowd,” said quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. “They got ignited, and we found something.”

The drama was not finished.

Jason Sanders shanked a game-tying 42-yard field goal.

Then hit from 37 yards out to tie it 17-17.

That’s when a huge Miami defensive stop punctuated by Jaelan Phillips’ sack forced a Jags punt. Miami had 2:09 left to win the game from its own 35.

That resulted in a 52-yard winning Sanders field goal as time expired for an ugly, beautiful, weird 20-17 season-opening win.

Hill would finish with seven catches for 130 yards and that win-spark TD.

“I still got a job to do,” he said of overcoming the pregame police stop.

The Dolphins began the game by turning the ball over on downs twice and punting twice in their first four possessions — this the team that was second in the NFL in scoring last season.

“We just couldn’t get our head out of our [bleep],” Tagovailoa said. ”We were sluggish.”

At that point I wasn’t sure which looked worse:

Miami’s offense.

Or the optics of the Miami-Dade Police Department cuffing a Black man on the ground in a traffic stop (one who happened to be an NFL superstar).

The Jaguars led 14-0 early and Dolfans were on a low simmer with scattered booing when, at last, Miami found the opponent end zone 1:04 before halftime on De’Von Achane’s 1-yard scoring run.

Jacksonville, a 3 1/2-point underdog, led 17-7 at the break until finally the second half offered remedy.

Hill had been detained by police outside the stadium and handcuffed on the ground just hours before kickoff after a traffic stop that escalated. He had been stopped for speeding, a verbal exchange became heated, and four Miami-Dade cops surrounded Hill, had him on the ground and cuffed behind his back.

The imagery was bad, really bad, reminiscent of police overreaction too common in Miami-Dade County and across America. Did Hill play a part in inviting it? Even if so, was it justified over a traffic stop? Did Hill’s race play a role? The stadium loomed in the background. Several teammates including Calais Campbell stopped in an effort to de-escalate the scene. Early arriving fans were seen slowing down to ogle, phone cameras recording it all.

One officer already has been placed on administrative leave. Body camera footage may show more.

“I’ve been trying to figuire it out, put it all together,” Hill said. “I got a lot of respect for cops. But I had no idea [whey they cuffed me] It was crazy. My mom didn’t raise me that way. I feel I was wronged.”

Teammate and witness Campbell called it “unnecessary” and ”excessive force.”

“It’s all around the world, you see it,” Hill said of that. “What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? You gotta be careful, man.”

Hill played in the game as if nothing had happened, but his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, called it “a heartbreaking situation” and “completely unnecessary” and said it was “mind-boggling” to see his client in cuffs. Rosenhaus said he is “just thankful Tyreek is OK” but said he’ll examine further to make certain Hill was not mistreated.

Off-field controversy across his career has been an occasional part of the price for having Hill and the speed and talent that saw him recently voted the NFL’s No. 1 player in a vote of fellow players. But this smells like something that may end up embarrassing the county police department more than it initially did the Dolphins and Hill.

Much was made in the buildup to the opener by Your Friend The Media that Sunday’s two quarterbacks had been college rivals and that Tua Tagovailoa’s Alabama lost to Trevor Lawrence’s Clemson in the 2019 national championship game.

What do you remember about that game, Tua?

“We lost.”

Does it haunt you?

“We lost, brother. Any time you lose any of those games, they stick with you, and I wasn’t happy about that performance, but it is what it is. You learn from all those mistakes and you grow, but it wasn’t a good memory.”

Any extra motivation facing Lawrence on Sunday?

“No, because I’m not playing him. He doesn’t play defense. I’m playing against their defense.”

Neither was coach Mike McDaniel biting on the extra-motivation angle.

“There is an art in the National Football League to properly prioritizing your motivations,” as he put it. “You can have the extra ones, but you better be focused on doing things for your teammates. Literally [Tua does not] play one snap against Trevor Lawrence.”

More than their collegiate past has these two QBs naturally linked after both signed mega-contract extensions this offseason — Lawrence for $55 million per year and Tagovailoa for $53.1 million per, both top-five salaries.

Now the two are further linked by this question:

Are they worth it?

Lawrence in his three pro seasons is 20-30 but has won a playoff game.

Tagovailoa in four season is 32-19 but has yet to win in the postseason.

Both have much still to prove. Well beyond statistics, each must show himself strong enough to lift a franchise.

Tagovailoa passed for 336 yards and that TD to Hill on Sunday.

It was Tagovailoa’s passionate halftime talk that helped spark the second-half rally.

“First time I heard Tua’s Hawaiian accent. It was turned up,” said Hill, smiling. “My quarterback gonna call me out in from of the team, I gotta step up!”

It was not a convincing win, but one with great parts. Timely offensive bursts. Special teams play excellent beyond the winning kick. A defense that pitched a second-half shutout.

It was not a convincing win, but it kept the team from sagging right out the gate.

It was a win that saw a resilient team rally from a pregame incident involving its best player, and then rally from early lethargy and a 14-point deficit.

Sunday, it was good enough.

Thursday night back in the same stadium, it won’t be.