Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill facing allegations of domestic violence

He has managed to avoid an NFL suspension, thanks in part to a rule at the time in which off-field incidents prior to a player’s time in the league could not impact the league to impose a ban, but another round of trouble is afoot for the fourth-year Dolphins receiver. Hill, 31, also avoided a suspension for an assault on a Miami-area marina worker in 2023.

Hill’s ex-wife, Keeta Vaccaro, has alleged multiple acts of violence beginning in January 2024. Hill and Vaccaro were married in November 2023; they separated 17 months later.

In a new court filing as part of the divorce, Vaccaro said Hill shoved her to the floor in January 2024 at their guest house in Southwest Ranches, Florida. In a separate incident, Vaccaro alleged Hill “violently attacked her, throwing her to the floor, twisting her intimate body parts, ripping her hair out and grabbing anything on her person he could get a hold of” in an Orlando hotel two weeks later, according to TMZ.

Vaccaro also alleges Hill shoved a marijuana cigarette in her face when the couple was preparing to leave for the 2024 Pro Bowl. In total, Vaccaro alleges eight separate acts of domestic violence. This includes incidents while she was pregnant.

Hill’s 2014 arrest involved a different woman, the mother of his oldest children, and involved allegations of punching and choking her while she was pregnant. (That arrest led to Hill being thrown off the Oklahoma State football and track teams; it later led some teams to remove the WR from their draft boards.) That woman, Crystal Espinal, alleged that Hill was violent against one of their children in 2019. Hill was also heard in a recording threatening Espinal, his then-fiancé. That recording preceded Hill being barred from the Chiefs’ facility during the 2019 offseason. Due in part to a lack of cooperation from a Kansas district attorney’s office, Hill was not suspended by the NFL in connection with the 2019 incident. He signed a Chiefs extension (three years, $54M) soon after the team welcomed him back, though that extension had protections for the team in the event more off-field trouble ensued.

With Hill staying out of trouble from then until March 2022, the Dolphins traded a five-pick package to the Chiefs and rewarded the standout receiver with a then-position-record four-year, $120M extension. A year after not being charged for his marina assault, Hill secured a new $50M guarantee package from the Dolphins. Months after that guarantee package, Hill checked himself out of Miami’s Week 18 game in New York and made an impromptu trade request — one he later walked back. That said, trade rumors have still followed the former fifth-round pick this year.

As with past Hill allegations, the case will need to play out. No charges have been filed against him in connection with Vaccaro’s allegations, though arrests or convictions are not required for suspensions under the NFL’s personal conduct policy. A league investigation could emerge as a result of Vaccaro’s claims. Two seasons remain on Hill’s Dolphins contract.