Tyreek Hill phone celebration: Dolphins star pledges to cover suspended photographer's pay after viral backflip

Dan Treacy

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Tyreek Hill phone celebration: Dolphins star pledges to cover suspended photographer's pay after viral backflip image

Few NFL wide receivers are better at scoring touchdowns than Tyreek Hill, and few are better at celebrating those touchdowns than Hill.

One of the best celebrations of the season came during the Dolphins' Week 6 win over the Panthers, when Hill took a photographer's phone behind the end zone and did a backflip while the phone was recording a video. 

The Dolphins were slapped with a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct because he used the phone as a prop, which likely came as no surprise to Hill, but the individual who took the brunt of the punishment was the photographer whose phone was used.

After the photographer, Kevin Fitzgibbons, posted a video on social media revealing that the NFL suspended him for the remainder of the season and possibly longer, Hill stepped up and pledged to cover Fitzgibbons' pay for the season.

"I told him I was going to cover his salary, whatever the NFL was going to pay him or whatever," Hill told reporters on Thursday. "I told him I was going to make sure that I do what's right and take care of you, make sure you're not out of a job. That's my guy."

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Fitzgibbons has worked with Hill one-on-one, so the Dolphins star knew whose phone he was grabbing after scoring against Carolina. "Me and K-Fitz, we've got a long history together," he told reporters.

Hill said after the game that he "just took it from him" rather than Fitzgibbons planning to hand him the phone.

That wasn't the league's concern though. Fitzgibbons, who is employed by the NFL and not Hill or the Dolphins, was jumping up and down after the touchdown, which led to concerns about his neutrality.

"They said regardless [of] if I knew the celebration was coming or not, I still had to be disciplined and that I shouldn't have jumped on the sidelines after the play," he said in the social media video.

With millions of views on Fitzgibbons' video detailing his passion for the game and Hill throwing his support behind the young photographer, the league may feel pressured not to hit him with a permanent ban 

Dan Treacy

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Dan Treacy is a content producer for Sporting News, joining in 2022 after graduating from Boston University. He founded @allsportsnews on Instagram in 2012 and has written for Lineups and Yardbarker.