Kelly: Are Dolphins and Tyreek Hill headed for a divorce? | Opinion

You can’t say “we’re through,” or “I want to see other people,” in a year where you’ve been caught on social media flirting with others [usually the Kansas City Chiefs], and think eventually saying “sorry” means all is forgiven.

The damage is done.

The hurt leaves a scar.

Tyreek Hill quit on the Miami Dolphins during Sunday’s 32-20 season-ending loss to the New York Jets, and then after it, insinuated he wants “out” of the organization.

The Dolphins’ star receiver, the player South Florida’s NFL franchise has spent three seasons cheering and babysitting, supporting, then making excuses for, was clearly frustrated.

Hill was forced to speak after the embarrassing loss by a team official and as the tough questions piled on the politically correctness, and tongue-biting disappeared.

Hill, who had fought through mounting injuries to turn in his second-least-productive season of his accomplished NFL career, said things he probably wished he didn’t say out loud about the 8-9 franchise that made him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL the past three seasons.

“I’m opening the door. I’m out bro. It was great playing here, but at the end of the day I got to do what’s best for my career,” said Hill, who caught two passes for 20 yards against Jets despite entering the game needing 61 yards to produce his eighth 1,000 -ard season. “I’m too much of a competitor to be just out there.”

This Hill saga is similar when too much toothpaste comes out the tube.

You can’t put it back!

But can you use it?

After all, we’re talking about an attention-seeking individual whose legal team filed for divorce from his newlywed last offseason and then acted like it never happened.

After quitting on the team on Sunday this elite player, a talent who is on a Hall of Fame trajectory, threw a tantrum that embarrassed his employer and the organization that paid him handsomely for three seasons.

Hill, a self-proclaimed social media troll, showed up his head coach, the same man who made him the NFL’s second-most-productive receiver in a two-year span and coddled him for years.

Now comes the hard part because we will soon learn how coach Mike McDaniel and the Dolphins handle Hill, who is seemingly pulling a Jimmy Butler, trying to force a trade.

Hill can’t be traded for months, and his value couldn’t be any lower, especially now that he has made his desire to move on from the Dolphins public. And then there’s the financial ramifications that come with moving him for whatever players or picks the franchise can get.

Keep in mind, tantrum or not, the six-time Pro Bowler is still the Dolphins’ most valuable asset, and proof of this came Monday when three teams contacted me to find out “what’s going on with Tyreek?”

They’re not asking because it’s juicy gossip.

But the Dolphins can’t, and shouldn’t pretend that what happened Sunday isn’t a big deal.

Hill undermined the organization, especially the culture McDaniel’s trying to build, and there’s the potential that this breakup can have a lasting impact on this team.

Hill certainly can’t stay without consequences, which means McDaniel must transform himself from McBuddy to McDisciplinarian.

Tough decisions must be made each offseason as the franchise works to restock the roster, and this is no different.

But the Hill saga will force McDaniel to evolve, and stretch himself, doing something that’s out of character for the third-year coach..

It will either be the turning point for McDaniel, one that helps him become the leader of men he has the potential to be, or the beginning of the end.

Joe Philbin and Adam Gase were both forced to revise their rosters when players checked out on them as leaders fit to run an NFL franchise.

Both lost their jobs as Dolphins head coaches when the players waved the white flag on them as leaders.

Brian Flores lost his when Tua Tagovailoa made it clear one of them — the coach or the quarterback — had to leave Miami.

Maybe Hill’s drawing a line in the sand, offering his vote on whether owner Steve Ross should keep things status quo within the organization, which was announced late Sunday night.

Either way, we will eventually discover the position everyone sits.

But I know exactly where my gaze will be fixated.

“It starts with Mike. He has to come with that approach that we’re going to be a great team, and nothing less. And hold everybody to that standard everyday, and people have to fully buy into everything that he’s preaching. Players, coaches, staff. Everyone,” offensive lineman Terron Armstead said Sunday about the Dolphins getting to the next level.

“You get 100-plus people on one common goal and you have a chance to be great. When you got so many moving parts, and when it’s disconnected you see it,” Armstead continued. “Sometimes offense is doing well and defense is not. Sometimes defense and special teams doing well and offense is not. To really be great you got to have all three phases, and it goes past the field. The field is just the finished product.

“The pregnancy of a team is what we have to focus on,” Armstead said, making a telling point. “People just want to see the baby. But we really got to go through the growing pains, the ups and downs to get there.”

It’s a shame the Dolphins latest growing pains might lead to a divorce with the team’s best player.