This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners. Happy Monday! I hope you had an excellent weekend. I also hope your NFL team won yesterday. The pain of having to sit a full week on an L is sickening.
I so wanted to come here today and talk about football. So many amazing things happened during the NFL’s opening weekend.
Anthony Richardson’s sophomore debut was electric. The Bears didn’t even need Caleb Williams to play well to win a game. Rams-Lions was so fun and came down to the wire.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened to Tyreek Hill on Sunday.
On Sunday morning, authorities detained Hill before Miami’s season opener for a traffic violation. He was pulled over and cited for reckless driving. The incident led to a verbal spat with officers that somehow escalated to him being laid face down on the pavement and handcuffed.
Now, the officer who handcuffed Hill (and his teammate, Calais Campbell, too) has been placed on “administrative duties,” according to the Miami-Dade County police department.
MORE ON HILL: Everything we know about Tyreek Hill’s detainment
Hill was asked about the incident after the game, and he replied with the most simple yet profound question that I think we all should be pondering today.
“What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what those guys would have done,” Hill said.
That’s the question. What if he wasn’t Tyreek Hill? How does this story unfold? Where does the situation go from there?
The scary part is that we probably already know the answer.
We’ve seen situations like this escalate for much less. Sonya Massey. Elijah McClain. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. You know the names. The list is, unfortunately, a long one. Police brutality has been a plague to Black folks in America for a long, long time. Hill is just the latest victim.
Thank goodness he is Tyreek Hill. Thank goodness he and his teammates were famous enough to escape this physically unharmed. Fame may have saved Hill’s life. Others haven’t been so lucky.
Just because Hill escaped this unharmed doesn’t mean the conversation should stop here. He’s doing the right thing and asking the right questions but wants to take this further. He’s ready to do the work.
READ MORE: Tyreek Hill mocked being detained after scoring a touchdown
“Everybody has bad apples in every situation, but I want to be able to use this platform to figure out a way to flip this and make it a positive on my end and Miami-Dade and do something positive for the community,” he said to reporters after the game.
With the money and resources around him, it’s certainly possible for Hill to shake things up a bit here. But it’s not just on Hill — the NFL needs to back him up with this.
After all, this is the exact work the NFL’s “Inspire Change” social justice initiative is supposed to be doing, isn’t it? Criminal justice reform and community-police relations are two of its focuses. Here’s an opportunity for the league to put its money where its mouth is.
The Miami-Dade police department is historically rife with corruption. It’s been that way for decades. The mechanisms to check the department are also dwindling. Just a few weeks ago, Miami announced the dissolution of its civilian investigation panel thanks to a statewide ban on civilian oversight of policing. The ICP was created in 2001 following a series of police shootings and was meant to be a counterbalance to corruption in the department.
Inspire Change’s goals have always been broad strokes, but it’s time to get granular. It might just be one police department in one city, but the NFL has the resources to drive real change with the Miami-Dade police department.
The league should be demanding investigations into this incident with Hill. It should peer into how the department trains its officers and how they behave in different communities. The league should be spending whatever it takes to look into every nook and cranny the department has to ensure this doesn’t happen again — not just to Tyreek Hill, but to everyone else in Miami, too.
It’s time for action. Hill is ready for it. The league needs to be, too. Well, at least, if it truly believes in Inspire Change the way it says it does.
We’ll see how things move from here.
Never miss a snap with 4th & Monday
What’s the sneaky-good NFL game of the week? Looking to dominate your fantasy league or survivor pool? Get pigskin prognostications, plus the top storylines each week with 4th & Monday, USA TODAY Sports’ expert guide to NFL action, game results and must-see moments.
Sign up here for our NFL newsletter and get that exclusive content delivered to your inbox each Friday and Monday during the season and every Monday in the offseason.
The Panthers are still the Panthers
Absolutely nothing has changed for Carolina, our Robert Zeglinski writes. Bryce Young still looks awful. The defense is still a tragedy. Derek Carr and the Saints picked Carolina apart, 47-10 in their Week 1 opener.
There was all this talk coming into the season about how Young had improved and how he’d have new weapons and a new offense that’d make him look much better.
So much for all that. Here’s Robert with more:
“Dearest readers, Young threw a pick on his first play of the 2024 season. The first play! He also didn’t even complete half of his passes. As an offense, the Panthers averaged a putrid 3.5 yards per play. They crossed midfield three times all afternoon, showing zero identity or cohesion in the process. On a Sunday filled with up-and-down offensive performances from many NFL teams, the Panthers were the most uninspiring by far. There is nothing this offense can take into next week to count or build on.
So much for that Diontae Johnson addition giving Young a new friend.”
It’s still too early in the season to give up hope here completely. But, folks. If you know a Panthers fan, hug a Panthers fan today. They need it.
READ MORE: Robert Zeglinski’s full NFL Week 1 awards column is awesome. Check it out.
From All-American to none at all
It was an exciting time at the US Open last week. The prospect of an American-born player winning both the men’s and women’s finals at the tournament was very real.
On the men’s side, we had Taylor Fritz (No. 12) and Frances Tiafoe (No. 20) competing against one another in a semi-final match. On the women’s side, we had Jessica Pegula (No. 6) and Emma Navarro (No. 13) playing in semi-final matches with a chance to advance to the finals.
Well, Fritz and Pegula both made it to the end. Neither came away with the trophy, though.
Instead, it was Jannik Sinner (No. 1) and Aryna Sabalenka (No. 2) who took home the trophy. Both won the Australian Open this year, too.
Twice as nice 🏆🏆
Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka both won the US Open and Australian Open in the same year 🙌 pic.twitter.com/q9pu734nPe
— ESPN (@espn) September 8, 2024
It would’ve been nice to see the American men’s major drought ended here, but Sinner is incredible. He’s legitimately the best player on the ATP Tour today, and that’s a well-deserved win.
The same has to be said for Sabalenka on the women’s side. She got to the final last year and couldn’t get over the hump against Coco Gauff. It’s nice to see her finally reach the pinnacle this year.
Hats off to these two. What a weekend of tennis.
Quick hits: 10 things we learned from Week 1 … The chaotic New York Giants … and more
— Here are 10 things we learned from Week 1 in the NFL from Christian D’Andrea
— The Giants fans booed their team in Week 1 and Dexter Lawrence is not here for it. Andrew Joseph has more.
— Here’s Christian again with the grossest QB performances of Week 1. Deshaun Watson is cooked.
— Malik Nabers is already distancing himself from Daniel Jones. Here’s Robert with more.
— Angel Reese is trolling fans who think she’s faking her wrist injury. Here’s Meg Hall with more.
— Scott Hanson is apologizing for being right. Here’s Charles Curtis with more.
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you. Let’s do it again tomorrow. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
