The Déjà Vu of Watching the Miami Dolphins

Thursday night’s game between the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills began in an ordinary way—pre-game chatter about the Bills’ dominance of the Dolphins in recent years, the coin flip, kickoff, touchback. Only a few years ago, that normalcy—new kickoff rules aside—would have seemed a little strange. Earlier in the week, the Miami-Dade Police Department had released body-cam footage of cops pinning the Dolphins’ star wide receiver Tyreek Hill to the ground and putting him in handcuffs, after he’d been pulled over for speeding and not wearing a seat belt while driving to the Dolphins’ stadium before a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. In the video, Hill had handed over his license to the officer. “Give me my ticket, bro, so I can go. I’m gonna be late. Do what you gotta do,” Hill had said, and then rolled up his window.