In case anyone hadn't decided on the KC Star yet

[DJ's left nut]

They're doubling down and hiding behind an 'editorial board' byline so nobody has to put their name on this shit.

https://amp.kansascity.com/opinion/e...mpression=true

Now that the full 11-minute recording of Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill and his now former fiancee, Crystal Espinal, talking about violence in their relationship has been aired, many fans are saying wow, this changes everything.

It does? That Hill, who didn’t know Espinal was taping him, denies ever hitting her or their son in what he thought was a private conversation is neither surprising nor exculpatory.

Abusers typically tell not only the police but friends, family, therapists, priests and even themselves they’ve never done anything wrong.

And if anything, the fact that Hill now says he didn’t hit punch or choke Espinal in 2014 makes him look worse rather than better. He pleaded guilty to those charges, publicly apologized, went through extensive therapy and declared himself reformed after probation. If he’s now back to saying that none of this ever happened, that’s not just a lie but a worrying one.

“I didn’t touch you in 2014,” he says on the tape. “And put that on everything I love, bro. That’s the real truth.”

That Espinal isn’t screaming at him that no, it’s not the truth, real or otherwise, is taken by some supporters as proof that he is innocent.

But why a woman who has been injured by him before and he’s threatening to hurt again might not do that should be obvious.


When she instead repeatedly asks him where her bruises came from if he never hit her, he doesn’t answer because there isn’t an answer that he likes well enough to repeat.

On Thursday, Espinal filed a petition in Johnson County seeking a paternity test for their newborn twins. She has full custody of them — they live with her — and she is asking for child support and only supervised visits for Hill. Her lawyer in the matter is legal counsel for SAFEHOME, a Johnson County group that supports survivors of domestic violence.

The NFL, meanwhile, seems ready to let Hill off with a brief suspension because the legal case against him isn’t going anywhere, but these things are still true:

Hill’s son was removed from his home after a child abuse investigation was launched. The Johnson County district attorney said the 3-year-old child had been hurt, but he didn’t have enough proof to prosecute.

On the tape, we heard Hill threaten the mother of his children with physical violence: “You need to be scared of me, too, dumb bitch.” He berates and belittles, calls her “bro” and “bitch” and of course, claims she ruined his life.

Denial of all wrongdoing is so standard in abuse cases that just a look at Thursday’s Star provides other examples, including that of Scott Hacker, the now former Parkville police officer charged with domestic violence after allegedly shooting his gun inside his home, throwing the woman who called 911 onto the couch, grabbing her by the throat and blaming her for “ending his career” by calling for help. Both before and after the cops arrived, he said he hadn’t shot the gun or touched her. But oops: A security camera in the living room apparently recorded the assault.

What Espinal was trying to get was the audio equivalent of that video.

If the NFL lets Hill back on the field this season, it will send the message that making threats and showing you’ve learned nothing from probation is no real problem, as long as you can run fast enough. The help he needs is not more denial, but just the opposite.

To the rest of you who are intent on seeing Hill as the victim, KCTV as a villain for not immediately releasing the full tape, and Espinal as a “manipulator” for wanting evidence to back her up in court, we could suggest some reading on the well-researched subject of abuse. But why, when you seem to prefer not to know?

[Marcellus]

I shared a story a month or so ago where a friend ran into a Chiefs player in KC a while back and joked with him to tell Hill to get OJ's lawyers.

The player got extremely serious and immediately went to explaining that Hill was a really good person.

You can blow that off all you want Eleazer but in light of what we have found out it through all of this it seems like the only people invested in burning Hill to the ground is the KC media.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

No shit.

"All I have to do is go 3 years without getting in trouble and it gets legally expunged like it never happened vs taking a chance at a trial?"

"Where do I sign?"

Exactly.

[Mecca]

I'm pretty sure it can be capped with this , 2014 is completely meaningless to the story they were proven to be false about. So stop trying to spin the **** out of the story to cover your ass, you were wrong, admit it.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Mecca

We should, and the Chiefs should do all they can to pull back from the Star also. The damn beat reporter made racist remarks about a player and said "there's something off about him" yet they are saying he's the bad guy, uh huh.

Yeah, I don't generally like to post complete articles because I think we owe it to content creators to give them their click.

But I posted the whole one here because I'm hopeful that this can be the end of that for many of us.

I was willing to maybe cut Mellinger a small amount of slack because he would at least acknowledge a couple of mistakes, even if he was unwilling to acknowledge all of them. But sorry Sam, you're just gonna have to be collateral damage here.

The behavior of the Star here is wholly unacceptable and they need to understand that.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Caseload.

Even a strong case takes time/effort/resources to make if the guy on the other side wants to dig his heels in and make you go to trial. Even a fairly straightforward jury trial takes a day to conduct and several days to prepare.

Meanwhile, you can plea that thing out and draw up the paperwork in an hour. Now you've bought probably 16-18 hours you can throw at someone who WON'T accept a plea or who's engaged in even more damning behavior.

It's all about volume.

Thanks for responding.

[Codered]

2014 doesn't matter anymore unless a pattern exists. There does not seem to be any obvious signs of that. Just speculation at best. At this point, the NFL isn't doing anyone any favors not releasing their ruling. Once it's released most news sources will move on unless something groundbreaking happens.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

I shared a story a month or so ago where a friend ran into a Chiefs player in KC a while back and joked with him to tell Hill to get OJ's lawyers.

The player got extremely serious and immediately went to explaining that Hill was a really good person.

You can blow that off all you want Eleazer but in light of what we have found out it through all of this it seems like the only people invested in burning Hill to the ground is the KC media.

Eleazars game is that we're all supposed to "not feel good about cheering for Tyreek" whatever that means.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

I just can't understand a Newspaper intentionally trying to bring down their Home team.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Thought: If the full audio makes him look worse, why the **** did KCTV5 edit it?

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath15

Thought: If the full audio makes him look worse, why the **** did KCTV5 edit it?

You know the answer to that...because it doesn't. This just more bullshit spin to try to get people to read it and agree with them because they they made everyone think he broke his sons arm so why not this?

[MVChiefFan]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

Hill is not going to be punished for the 2014 incident. It’s over and done with and won’t come into play despite the continued assault on Hill from the media. So we are back to just the recent stuff, which really isn’t much, hence the reason they are bringing up the 2014 stuff again. They are trying to justify their overall bad reporting.

Yeah, good point. Hopefully it will just die out.

[Mecca]

If you wanted to be a real ****ing asshole.....someone could take all the stories they've done on criminal justice reform and exonerated prisoners, gather all of those links/stories and then email them to the whole sports department and simply ask "so you don't believe any of this shit either right? make sure you let all the people who did these pieces know your stance"

[FringeNC]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

I just can't understand a Newspaper intentionally trying to bring down their Home team.

SJW morality trumps all. These are activists, not journalists.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

I just can't understand a Newspaper intentionally trying to bring down their Home team.

I don't think any of those people are from Kansas City.....they view anything like that as an opportunity to blow this shithole for a bigger more liberal city.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Codered

2014 doesn't matter anymore unless a pattern exists. There does not seem to be any obvious signs of that. Just speculation at best. At this point, the NFL isn't doing anyone any favors not releasing their ruling. Once it's released most news sources will move on unless something groundbreaking happens.

He plead guilty and paid the penalty for 2014, that matter from a legal standpoint is resolved. But CP can't go around claiming he was innocent back then when he said the opposite, even though we would all feel better if he hadn't abused her.

And with respect to the Star piece, they just pointed out that it's typical for even admitted abusers to later claim, and sometimes truly believe, that they never did anything wrong. Doesn't necessarily mean that describes Hill, but it's still true.