Why would Crystal Espinal cover for Tyreek Hill? Lots of reasons besides money

Kansas City Chiefs star Tyreek Hill and his fianceé, Crystal Espinal, would now — according to his attorney, anyway — seem to agree that the wide receiver has never been anything but loving to their 3-year-old son, who has been removed from their home.

Maybe he’s the model dad his lawyer describes. But if he’s not, why would she cover for him? We can think of millions of reasons, but the most important of those have nothing to do with money.

The things both Hill and Espinal said in a conversation she secretly recorded, about the way Hill treats their child? Espinal made it all up; she was essentially leading the witness, according to the letter his lawyer sent the NFL on Thursday. And Hill, taken aback by allegations he was hearing for the first time, was too floored to protest.

When she told him their little boy was terrified of him, and he answered, “You need to be terrified of me, too, dumb b----,” well, who knows what came over him.

“That comment is inexcusable, of course, and he wouldn’t ask me to defend that here,” Hill’s attorney, N. Trey Pettlon, wrote to the NFL.

Of course.

The Tyreek Hill presented by his attorney is otherwise unfailingly kind and respectful. “There have been occasions when Tyreek has tapped his son gently on the chest with his fingers, while his son was crying and said, ‘man up, buddy’ or ‘don’t cry, my man.’ He has said that in a calm voice trying to redirect him.”

They play superheroes and laugh a lot. It’s Espinal who is the disciplinarian, and who is at fault.

Hill, meanwhile, “is committed to improving his life and becoming the best parent he can be,” Pettlon wrote.

“I love and support my family above everything,” Hill said in a statement released by his attorneys. “My son’s health and happiness is my number one priority.”

The Hill in Pettlon’s letter is only in counseling because he so regrets what he said to Espinal on that one occasion, when she happened to have been taping him. Otherwise, what has he done that your average role model wouldn’t?

Presenting Hill in the best possible light is his job as the player’s legal defender, and he’s doing that job well.

But if Espinal is in fact absorbing all blame, and shielding him from the consequences of his own violence, that wouldn’t be irrational or out of nowhere. Nor is Hill’s potential payday the only possible motivation.

We know she has been abused, because Hill has pleaded guilty to doing her serious harm in 2014. Women in abusive relationships are in even more physical danger when a partner loses his job, as Hill very well might. They are in more danger when pregnant, too; intimate partner violence is the leading cause of female homicide and injury-related deaths during pregnancy.

No one has to tell Espinal, who is expecting twins, about the stats on that: When she was eight weeks pregnant with their son, Hill was arrested and charged with punching and strangling her.

A police report noted at the time that Espinal, whose face was covered with cuts and bruises during the interview, told investigators that Hill had pinned her to the wall and thrown her to the floor like a “rag doll,” then picked her up by her hair, put her in a headlock and sat on her while he punched her in the stomach. After pleading guilty, he was given three years of probation.

On March 15, The Star reported that a source familiar with the situation said an incident at Hill’s home had left their boy with a broken arm. “Why does (he) say, ‘Daddy did it?” Espinal asked Hill in the recording that KCTV-5 obtained and aired last week. “A 3-year-old is not going to lie about what happened to his arm.”

In his letter, Pettlon said the boy’s broken arm was an accident, and suggested that Hill never hurt him at any other time, either.

“Crystal you know I didn’t cause any bruising or harm to (him),” Hill texted Espinal, according to Pettlon’s letter to the NFL.

Hill’s lawyer said Espinal responded this way: “I know you didn’t. I did. I hurt (him). I’m the one that did it. I was hurt and mad at you so I blamed you for everything.”

Maybe that’s true, and maybe that’s desperation and fear talking. Pettlon’s letter says that, “As an aside, it seems clear from the audio that Ms. Espinal is not in fact terrified of Tyreek.” No, it doesn’t.

And whether his client continues to play football, here or anywhere, is the least of what’s at stake.

This story was originally published May 3, 2019 at 2:08 PM.