ESPN's Jeff Darlington has had a wild few months.
The NFL reporter has been one of the first media members on the scene during two different incidents involving law enforcement and some of the most high-profile athletes in their respective sports in golfer Scottie Scheffler and Miami Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill.
Darlington detailed the two-time Masters champion's mid-May arrest as he attempted to drive into the entrance of Valhalla Golf Club in the early morning hours ahead of the second round of the PGA Championship. Criminal charges were eventually dropped against Scheffler, but he called the incident "fairly traumatic."
On Sunday, roughly 1,000 miles away, Darlington again found himself among the initial insiders reporting a tense situation between police officers and a superstar athlete. Hill was pulled over Sunday for speeding while approaching Hard Rock Stadium ahead of the Dolphins' Week 1 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Subsequently released body camera footage showed the eight-time Pro Bowler being pulled out of his car, forced to the pavement and put in handcuffs.
Darlington recently discussed the incidents with ESPN NFL senior insider Adam Schefter on "The Adam Schefter Podcast."
"As surreal a moment in my brain like, trying to process (Hill's detainment), as it was standing in the rain, seeing Scottie Scheffler being placed in handcuffs, this time, because I'm literally like 'This is not a reality, like this can't be real," Darlington said. "But at the same time, just like what happened with the Scheffler thing; you know I think that you and I have been doing this job long enough to where you sort of go into this very hyper-focused, it's the closest thing that I have to understanding what an athlete goes through in a game where it just becomes this like very channeled focus where it's not about what's happening on Twitter. It's not about anything that anybody's saying. It's 'Ok, live in this moment. This is happening. This is unique. This is Tyreek Hill's story. This is not Scottie Scheffler's story.'"
The insider continued, noting that there was an "incredible similarity" between the two events.
"And as you go into that though," Darlington explained, "I also started to process it and say, 'There is this incredible similarity that I can't completely ignore, that I don't make the comparison lightly. I'm not looking to make the comparison,' but the more I even think about it, the more I see the body cam footage — and there are differences. I'm not saying that there are not differences, but people said after the Scottie Scheffler thing, 'You'll never cover another story like that in your life,' and they were wrong."
It was reported in August that one of the key figures in Scheffler's arrest — police officer Javar Downs — was himself arrested in a separate incident. Downs was reportedly charged with one count of theft by unlawful taking of $1,000 or greater, plus one count of official misconduct.
Like the incident involving Scheffler, Hill's detainment on Sunday has sparked heavy backlash for the Miami-Dade Police Department, with many arguing that excessive force was used against the pass-catcher.
The Miami police union claimed in a statement on Monday that Hill was "uncooperative" and "initiated this unfortunate incident" with officers. The Dolphins released a statement on Monday as well, supporting the "Cheetah" and calling on the department to take "swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior."
Hill addressed the matter on Wednesday in his first in-person public comments, calling for the Miami-Dade police officer who handcuffed him on Sunday to be fired.
