Getty Former Kansas City Chiefs teammates Patrick Mahomes (left) and Tyreek Hill (right) at the Super Bowl victory parade.
Former Kansas City Chiefs star Tyreek Hill has made waves with the first episode of his new podcast, “It Needed To Be Said,” which many felt made critical comments toward Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach.
“Anything that the Cheetah does, the Cheetah’s going to do it the cheetah way,” Hill voiced toward the start of the said podcast. He defined this as “fast — look good, feel good, play good,” and of course, get paid good.
Not long after on June 20, an ex-NFL Pro Bowler turned analyst had a different way to describe it.
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Ryan Clark Rips Hill for ‘Lying’
Chiefs Kingdom, the unlikeliest of heroes has come to your defense — ex-NFL safety Ryan Clark.
Bruh!! @cheetah know he out here lying on his podcast. I feel him though. Everyone is talking about the podcast and I’m sure Tua feels good about it… but he doesn’t mean any of that stuff he said about KC or Pat.
“Bruh!! Cheetah know he out here lying on his podcast,” tweeted Clark. “I feel him though. Everyone is talking about the podcast and I’m sure Tua feels good about it… but he doesn’t mean any of that stuff he said about KC or Pat.”
It didn’t take long before Hill countered: “I’m glad you living two lives bro congrats.”
The support from Clark is a bit surprising. After all, the same ESPN analyst famous for his hot takes called Mahomes “broken” in 2021. Although he did eventually walk back those comments.
Perhaps Hill will do the same, or maybe the Cheetah is just getting started.
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Thoughts That Began the Controversy
You may have heard that Mahomes was “surprised” by Hill’s podcast but if you still have not heard the wideout’s answers in their entirety, we’ll try and detail some of them below.
Around the 19-minute mark, Hill was asked about his time in Kansas City. He stated:
“First four years, it was great, man. I came in as a rookie, played with Alex Smith — one of the greatest guys that I will ever meet also. Played under arguably one of the greatest coaches of all time, Andy Reid. Learned a lot under a lot of great guys. My first four years were great, man. I got to play with, I feel like the greatest tight end of all time, Travis Kelce… and Patrick Mahomes just came in and changed everything around — the young phenom, different, throwing the ball about 85 yards, crazy. Changed the game.”
Here was the “but” moment. Hill’s agent Drew Rosenhaus helped him explain: “There [were] a lot of times during the [2021 season] that we felt that Tyreek was underutilized and wasn’t fully appreciated. And that [the Chiefs] weren’t really taking full advantage of all of his ability and talent… It was frustrating that he wasn’t given a chance to do more to help the team in their efforts to win games, and Tyreek’s a very unselfish player and is the consummate team player, but there were a lot of things during this season that just felt like there wasn’t the same commitment to him.”
Hill later highlighted the Baltimore Ravens loss as one of the games he felt this way.
Later, the pair (Hill and Rosenhaus) stressed that “Tyreek wanted to be in Kansas City.”
Co-host and lawyer Julius Collins then asked if they believed the Chiefs were purposefully suppressing Hill’s stats throughout the 2021 campaign, in order to lower his price tag. Neither Hill nor Rosenhaus was willing to answer Collins directly this time but agreed that they were “very far apart on the numbers” with KC.
Rosenhaus reiterated that Davante Adams’ contract with the Las Vegas Raiders did factor in, and Hill implied that he felt the Chiefs low-balled him for contributions. He even revealed that he went to Coach Reid and Mahomes personally, hoping they would support his negotiations.
“Brett Veach was like okay, we don’t see you as a $25 million wide receiver,” Hill continued, “but we [are going to] try and get as many [draft] picks as we can up out of you.”
The wide receiver also talked about; Miami Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel allowing him more personal freedoms concerning family, craving “notoriety” within the building with the Chiefs coaching staff (not so much outside the building), and that he feels he can perform with any quarterback — citing his stats with Matt Moore in the past.
Hill went one step further on that final topic, voicing that Tua Tagovailoa is a more accurate passer than Mahomes.
It’s unclear which portion of the tell-all Clark believes was a lie, but many feel that the Tagovailoa compliment was a huge part of it. “This is not a shot at anybody,” Collins proclaimed for Hill a few different times throughout, “but this just needs to be said.”