Interview: Hall of Famer Cris Carter responds to Tyreek Hill arrest before Sunday's game.

Published Sep 10, 2024, 8:00 PM

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown. 

Let's get to the serious matter at hand and get that out of the way as it pertains to Tyreek Hill. You saw of news yesterday, you saw what transpired short of.

You sort of video.

What were your thoughts when you were seeing all of that?

CC Well, definitely a very troubling situation. One thing that we have to realize is professional athletes entertainers that on the way doing to get to our job. There's a lot of people that are doing their job. Now I'm gonna say that again, on the way to doing our job. There's a lot of people that are doing their job. And I've been a resident of South Florida. You know, you got a career down here in South Florida. So seeing people with money and fancy cards, that's not a big deal. But these are life threatening situations and you don't expect to ever see an NFL player detained.

Let Loan being handcuffed.

Being faced down Steve it was the heat index was one hundred degrees yesterday. Now the asphalt when they put him down there and put his face down there, and the guy.

Put his knee in his back and everything.

I mean, just given all the things that we have seen video recordings the last five years.

Now is Tyrek Hill getting ready to be another accident like that? Now?

I got a great deal of respect for law enforcement here in South Florida. But obviously there was a miscommunication that we end up getting an NFL star face down outside of this stadium, outside of his work complex, several of his teammates watching, and another one of his teammates was handcuffed Kalais Campbell, who would never played the game with Tyrek Hill, but had seen that and was disturbed enough that I'm not going to leave him right here.

Very disturbing situation.

And you know that he couldn't have done too much wrong with NFL investigating because they wouldn't have had him on the field. So now to see him get his composure to have the contribution in the game the way he later in the game, Man, that's very very difficult. Not a lot of humans can able to do that, be faced down, handcuffed, and then be the star of a football game a couple hours later.

Let's get to the serious matter at hand and get that out of the way as it pertains to Tyreek Hill. You saw the news yesterday, you saw what transpired. You short of you sort of video. What were your thoughts when you were seeing all of that?

CC Well, definitely a very troubling situation. One thing that we have to realize is professional athletes entertainments that on the way doing to get to our job, there's a lot of people that are doing their job. Now, I'm gonna say that again, on the way to doing our job. There's a lot of people that are doing their job. And I've been a resident of South Florida. You know, you got a career down here in South Florida. So seeing people with money and fancy cards, that's that's not a big deal. But these are our life threatening situations. And you don't expect to ever see an NFL player detained, let Loan being handcuffed.

Being faced down Steve.

It was the heat index was one hundred degrees yesterday. Now the asphalt when they put him down there and put his face down there, and the guy put his knee in his back and everything. I mean, just given all the things that we have seen video recordings the last five years, now is Tyrek Hill getting ready to be another accident like that?

Now?

I got a great deal of respect for law enforcement here in South Florida. But obviously there was a miscommunication that we end up getting an NFL star face down outside of this stadium, outside of his work complex, several of his teammates watching, and another one of his teammates was handcuffed Kalais Campbell, who would never played the game with Tyrek Hill, but had seen that and was disturbed enough that I'm not going to leave him right here.

Very disturbing situation, and you know that he didn't.

He couldn't have done too much wrong with NFL investigating because they wouldn't have had him on the field. So now to see him get his composer to have the contribution in the game the way he did later in the game, man, that's very.

Very difficult.

Not a lot of humans can able to do that these face down, handcuffed and then be the star of a football game a couple hours later.

No question about one hundred and thirty receiving yards an eighty yard touchdown catch that pulled the game within seventeen or fourteen after they were trailing seventeen to seven. Major props to the cheat himself, Tyreek Hill. The thing that really resonated with me was a couple of things. Number One, you had him on the ground. And I remember when Scotty Scheffler got arrested. We saw him being pulled away. He was detained, ultimately arrested. He was in handcuffs. We didn't see him face down on the ground. You've been living in Florida for over thirty years, if I remember correctly, so you know a thing of two about how they do business down there, law enforcement and beyond. And I'm of the mindset that, okay, who knows what was said, who knows what would happen. You didn't have him in handcuffs. You wanted to get him in handcuffs, but Dan, he stood up, and then you saw him surrounded by three officers, and still another officer comes around the back and forcibly gets him to sit down again. And I'm like, he's already in handcuffs, He's no threat. Why are you doing something like that? And to me, that made me so angry because once again it contributes to thoughts of dehumanization of the black man, and particularly the black athlete, when it comes to stuff like that. That was my impression.

What do you say to that.

I'm more concerned not with the athletes, because we have visible platform, we have ways to be able to come back this. But I'm concerned about my aunt, my uncle, my niece, my nephew, my brother, my sister, I mean people I know, brother in California, brother in New York. I mean, this is just how we have been treated for years, and now even our most prominent people are still you know, they're the fame is It doesn't make you I'm absent of not facing this type of brutality. And I know a lot of police departments have cleaned up their act and they still need to continue doing work on that. As you can see, one of the officers, the aggressive officer, he was already suspended immediately, So they saw something.

Wrong with this conduct.

And I'm glad that it was able to be resolved in a non harmful way. And I'm glad that the players were safe.

No question about one hundred and thirty receiving yards an eighty yard touchdown catch that pulled the game within seventeen or fourteen after they were trailing seventeen to seven. Major props to the cheating himself, Tyreek Hill. The thing that really resonated with me was a couple of things. Number One, you had him on the ground. And I remember when Scotty Scheffler got arrested. We saw him being pulled away. He was detained, ultimately arrested. He was in handcuffs. We didn't see him face down on the ground. You've been living in Florida for over thirty years, if I remember correctly, so you know a thing or two about how they do business down there, law enforcement and beyond. And I'm of the mindset that, Okay, who knows what was said, Who knows what would happen. You didn't have him in handcuffs. You wanted to get him in handcuffs, but Dan, he stood up, and then you saw him surrounded by three officers, and still another officer comes around the back and forcibly gets him to sit down again. And I'm like, he's already in handcuffs, He's no threat. Why are you doing something like that? And to me, that made me so angry because once again it contributes to thoughts of dehumanization of the black man, and particularly the black athlete when it comes to stuff like that. That was my impression.

What do you say to that.

I'm more concerned not with the athletes, because we have visible platform we have ways to build to come back this, but I'm concerned about my aunt, my uncle, my niece, my nephew, my brother, my sister, I mean people I know, brother in California, brother in New York. I mean, this is just how we have been treated for years, and now even our most prominent people are still you know, the fame is it doesn't make you absent of not facing this type of brutality. And I know a lot of police departments have cleaned up their act and they still need to continue doing work on that. As you can see one of the officers, the aggressive officer, he was already suspended immediately, so they saw something wrong with this conduct. And I'm glad that it was able to be resolved in a non harmful way, and I'm glad that the players were safe.