Chiefs' Tyreek Hill 'categorically denies' injuring son in letter to NFL, per reports
Kansas City Chiefs all-pro receiver Tyreek Hill has responded to the NFL as it investigates what appears to be a troubling conversation between him and his fiancée, according to multiple reports.
ESPN and the Associated Press obtained a four-page letter that Hill’s attorneys reportedly sent to the league's special counsel for investigations, Lisa Friel, on Thursday. It addresses an audio recording that recently surfaced between Hill and fiancée Crystal Espinal as they discussed their 3-year-old son and parenting methods.
In that recording, Hill tells Espinal she should be terrified of him. They discuss their son's broken arm, Espinal saying the boy claimed, "Daddy did it." She also alleges Hill punches their son and uses a belt to discipline him, accusations Hill "categorically denies" in the letter.
“This was the first time Tyreek ever heard anyone allege he punched his son to punish him,” reads the letter. “He categorically denies he has ever ‘punched’ his son in the chest or anywhere on his body, or otherwise touched him in the chest in a mean-spirited manner or as a form of discipline.”
The letter also provides explanations to other portions of the recording before concluding that “all indications are that the criminal investigation is over, and Tyreek still maintains his innocence.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said last Friday that a criminal investigation into Hill had re-opened after the audio was released the previous evening. Just prior to the recording becoming public, a Johnson County (Kan.) prosecutor said he believed a crime had occurred but didn’t have sufficient evidence to determine who committed it. The Johnson County district attorney’s office would not confirm to Paste BN Sports on Thursday whether the case has been reopened, simply repeating they had no further comment after last week.
Hill’s attorneys declined to share the letter with Paste BN Sports, saying it was intended for Friel. The NFL did not immediately return messages from Paste BN Sports seeking to independently confirm the letter and its contents. A Chiefs spokesman said he had no further comment this week.
In the audio clip, originally released last week by KCTV5 in Kansas City, Espinal alleges that the couple’s son says “Daddy punches me” and that Hill “open(s) up his arms and you punch him in the chest.
"And then if he gets in trouble, you get the belt out,” Espinal says.
Hill maintains throughout the audio, recorded in a Dubai airport, that “I didn’t do nothing” and “he says Daddy does a lot of things."
Regarding claims Hill broke his son’s arm, the letter says the boy “was examined and released without any indication that the accident that broke his arm was caused by Tyreek or contributed to by Tyreek, or that Tyreek was even somehow involved.”
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Per the letter, the investigation was closed with “nothing about the injury to suggest it was anything but an accident.
“Again, Tyreek has repeatedly denied harming their son.”
Hill’s attorneys say “both parents understand now that corporal punishment in any form is not an acceptable form of discipline” and that they are cooperating with Kansas’ Department for Children and Families — which confirmed to Paste BN Sports on Thursday that its own investigation remains ongoing.
Hill and Espinal lost custody of their son, per multiple reports.
The letter includes an alleged text conversation between Hill and Espinal.
“Crystal you know I didn’t cause any bruising or harm to (our son),” the excerpt says. “But for some reason I may still be charged.”
Espinal says “I know you didn’t," per Hill’s attorneys. “I did. I hurt (our son). I’m the one that did it. I was hurt and mad at you so I blamed you for everything.”
The couple, still together, are in family and individual counseling according to Hill’s attorneys.
Regarding Hill telling Espinal on the audio “to be terrified of me, too, (expletive),” Hill’s attorneys say it was an “unacceptable” response borne of his frustration.
“That comment is inexcusable, of course, and (Hill) wouldn’t ask (his lawyers) to defend that,” the letter says. “That comment is also inconsistent with Tyreek’s conversations with Ms. Espinal over the past several months.”
The attorneys say a forensic analysis of Hill's and Espinal’s conversations don’t include any reference to the expletive and that he “never says anything that is even remotely demeaning, controlling, rude or threatening in nature to Ms. Espinal.”
The Chiefs issued a statement last week saying they were “deeply disturbed and concerned by what we heard.” General manager Brett Veach reiterated Friday that Hill would not take part in team activities as the investigation proceeds but said the franchise would “make the right decision.”
Hill’s March incidents — for “child abuse/neglect” and “battery” to a juvenile, according to police reports obtained by Paste BN Sports — are not his first. He was kicked off the Oklahoma State football team after allegedly choking and punching Espinal in December 2014. He pleaded guilty in August 2015 to domestic violence and battery by strangulation.
Kansas City released Pro Bowl running back Kareem Hunt last November after a video surfaced that showed him shoving and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel. The Browns subsequently signed Hunt, who will serve an eight-game suspension for violation of the league’s personal-conduct policy.
Contributing: A.J. Perez
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