Tyreek Hill took the high road — almost — when he chatted Friday about new teammate, Eli Apple. But receivers and cornerbacks, especially social media frenemies, have to get in a dig. It’s required.
The Dolphins signed Apple, formerly of the Bengals, early in training camp. They needed him after Jalen Ramsey, Miami’s top free agent signee, tore cartilage in his knee. He’s not expected to return until late in the season.
And Tyreek Hill said a coach called to let him know Eli Apple was on his way to Miami. Coaches don’t normally alert other players know about trades. But Hill and Apple have had well-known beefs via social media. The two players might be the biggest trolls in the NFL.
‘Well, when I heard about it, coach had called me,” Hill said Friday when a reporter asked him about Apple. “He was like, ‘Hey, Reek, we finna sign somebody.’ I was like, ‘Who y’all finna sign?’ He was like, ‘We finna sign Eli Apple.’ I was like, ‘Aight, cool.’ He was like, ‘You ain’t got a problem with that?’ I was like, ‘Nah, I ain’t got no problem with that. Why would I have a problem with that?’ “
(We interrupt these quotes to offer some reasons here why Hill might not like Apple on the team. We’ll let Hill continue).
“So I just feel like a lot of people, it just get fed into what’s going on in social media,” Hill said. “And that’s not really what it is. I was fired up for us to be able to add another competitor to this team because that makes us better in the long run, having that cornerback depth. Eli, he’s a great guy. I know we had some battles, but at the end of the day, man, we’re all trying to win. We’re all trying to get better.”
And then: “And now … I get to embarrass him every day.”
We’re not sure if Apple will need to respond to Hill. Reports out of Miami suggest that Hill hasn’t lined up against Apple in training camp, as yet. The cornerback had taken a break from Twitter for a few weeks. But after he signed with the Dolphins, he did retweet a Miami video showing him signing a contract.
And Eli Apple told reporters that he’s cool with Tyreek Hill.
“His locker is literally right across from mine,” Apple said, earlier this week. “I saw him earlier today in the locker room and we were chopping it up a little bit at the training and breakfast table. We all good. It’s all love. We’re on the same team. All love.”
The Dolphins open the preseason next Friday at home against the Falcons.
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