The streets, the family, the environment. Will Hill admits he couldn’t deal with any of them.
Sure, the Giants safety appears to be living a dream, playing for the NFL team nearly in his backyard. On the field, he has had few problems fitting in with the Giants. It’s on the outside where Hill falters.
He recalled a day when he went home to East Orange, N.J., for a visit.
“A guy pulled a shotgun on me right then and wanted money,’’ Hill said yesterday prior to Giants practice. “How do you deal with those situations? I really can’t, so I dealt with it the best way I knew how.’’
The way Hill said he dealt with the situation, and many others like it, was to smoke some marijuana. Last week, it was revealed the NFL had suspended Hill for the first four games of the season for violating the league’s drug policy. Hill said he failed “a couple of drug tests’’ for marijuana last season and, after an unsuccessful appeal, the league handed down its ruling.
“Oh, yeah, it’s definitely disappointing,’’ said Hill, a second-year safety with loads of athletic potential, but tons of personal baggage. “By us being professional athletes you would think people who would have your back would have your back, but coming out and growing up in this environment here, I had a lot of stress from my environments and [drugs were] the only way I knew how to cope with it until I got with the team and they put me in some clinics and stuff and helped me out.’’
Hill went to high school in Jersey City and college at Florida, where he ran into plenty of trouble, a big reason why he wasn’t drafted. He was out of football in 2011 and made the Giants’ roster last year as a free agent after an impressive summer. He fits into the Giants’ plans, as a solid special teams player and an emerging defensive presence at safety. But he’s also a considerable risk, considering his past, considering as a rookie he served a four-game suspension for violating the NFL policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Hill said he took Adderall.
Hill, 23, can participate in every aspect of training camp and can play in all four preseason games, but once the season starts he must separate from the team. He won’t be paid for the four games he misses and is eligible to return after the Sept. 29 game against the Chiefs.
“We were disappointed,’’ coach Tom Coughlin said, “and hopefully Will is going to get his life straightened out.’’
Despite his troubles, Hill said he believes his spot on the roster is secure.
“I talked to the team and they just told me to keep on moving forward, keep being positive,’’ he said. “Just take the suspension and leave it at that and don’t have any more mishaps. Yeah, I think I’ll be here.I think I’ll be around.’’
Hill was remarkably candid speaking about his drug use, which, he said, stems from his environment and not the stress of the NFL.
“Nah, nothing to do with football,’’ Hill said. “It’s from family members, everyone reaching their hand out thinking I’m an ATM, and people who think you owe them something.
“I’ve been through so many stressful times growing up the way I grew up, it was second nature, basically. Growing up, walking down the street, people putting guns in your face and things like that is stressful. You really don’t know how to deal with situations like that when you’re faced with them.’’
The Giants, Hill said, “helped me the best way they could to get me help and to help me see other ways to cope with my problems.’’ Hill this past offseason spent a month at a drug rehab center in the Boston area, entering around Easter. He also attends an outpatient facility in Parsippany, N.J.
“It wasn’t forced upon me,’’ Hill said. “They asked me if I wanted to go and I did. I definitely wanted to get away from here for one. The stressful situations didn’t go out there. And learn a thing or two. There are a lot of people who have worse issues than I have and made me feel a lot better.’’