Originally Posted by :
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?
Originally Posted by FAX:
They have a problem over there.
Somewhere along the way, they were infiltrated by Virtue Pimps who see their readership as The Great Unwashed.
As if the NFL errors on the side of leniency. Ever. I think I'd accept the NFL's in-depth, months-long investigation long before the Star's "opinion".
At this point, anything we can do (or don't do) that accelerates their final demise into total and permanent bankruptcy is an act of honor and decency.
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Don't. Give. These. Motherfuckers. Any. More. Clicks.
Never. At all. Not Sam, not a poll, not a game recap.
Nothing - they need to be dead to all of you. And they need to be dead to anyone who considers themselves Chiefs fans.
I cannot for the life of me understand how anybody on this board, a board dedicated to the Chiefs, can comfortably maintain even a passing associating with the Kansas City Star.
Originally Posted by DaFace:
It's almost tempting to put a url filter in place to ensure that they don't get clicks from here.
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Look at what we can get from independent sources.
Stout's little quip about the Chiefs running 10 personnel with an average 40 time under 4.4 - that's gold.
And I guarantee the Brooke Pryor has no !@#$ing clue what a '10 personnel' means.
There is no reason at all to continue to give them pageviews. They are a 2nd rate newspaper that has joined the mewling clickbaiters in appealing to the lowest common denominator in pursuit of advertising dollars. They have 1 talented writer who's hardly blameless in this affair and ultimately arises to little more than acceptable collateral damage.
Cut the cord with these guys. It starts here - if a board as rabid as this one, with nothing but fervent Chiefs supporters can't have the self-control to rid themselves of this tripe, then the Star will never face the consequences of this nonsense. If we won't punish them, nobody will.