MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Week 1 of Tyreek Hill and Eli Apple coexisting in the Miami Dolphins‘ locker room went without a hitch.
But everyone from fans to media to Hill himself are still not-so-patiently waiting for the one-on-one matchup between trash-talking rivals in practice.
It hasn’t happened yet — much to Hill’s chagrin.
Miami Dolphins CB Tyreek Hill Excited To ‘Embarrass’ Eli Apple
“Every time I try to go against him in one-on-ones, it’s either [Xavien Howard] trying to go against me or Kader [Kohou] or Noah [Igbinoghene],” Hill said after Friday’s rain-soaked Dolphins training camp practice.
“I’m like, ‘Bro, let me go against somebody else.’ They be calling me out every day. I’m like, ‘No, I don’t want to go against y’all. Let me go get Eli or Cam or somebody else, man.’ Those guys be calling me out.”
So when is the much-anticipated showdown finally going to happen?
“The day that X don’t call me out, because when X calls me out, then I feel like if I don’t go, then the receivers are gonna look at me like, ‘You scared?’. So, the day X don’t call me out.”
Hopefully, that day is Saturday, when Hill, Apple, and the rest of the 2023 Dolphins hold a stadium practice ahead of next Friday’s preseason opener.
The war of words between Hill and Apple dates at least back to Hill’s time in Kansas City and Apple’s stint in Cincinnati. Apple’s Bengals won both meetings in the 2021-2022 season and postseason, including the conference title game. And Apple let Hill know about it.
That’s why Mike McDaniel and Chris Grier called Hill prior to last week’s signing to give him a heads up — and make sure the Dolphins’ best player was OK with the move. Apple was a needed depth signing after Jalen Ramsey injured his knee late last week.
“Coach had called me,” Hill said. “He was like, ‘Hey Reek, we’re going to sign somebody.’ I’m like, ‘Who are you going to sign?’ He was like, ‘We’re gonna sign Eli Apple,’ and I was like, ‘alright, cool.’ He was like, ‘You ain’t got a problem with that?’ I was like, ‘No, I ain’t got no problem with that. Why would I have a problem with that?'”
“I just feel like a lot of people just get fed into like what’s going on in social media,” Hill continued. “That’s not really what it is. I was fired up, you know, for us to be able to add like another competitor to this team, you know, because that’s going to make us better in the long run, having that cornerback depth.
“Eli, he’s a great guy, you know. I know he had some battles, but at the end of the day, man, like we all are trying to win, we all are trying to get better. My looking at it is, now I get to embarrass him every day.”
- Hill told reporters Friday that he still has not heard from the league about whether he will face punishment for his part in a Miami-Dade marina altercation in June.