Will Hill, the former Giants safety, has found a new home. The talented but troubled Jersey City resident signed Friday with the Baltimore Ravens, a team currently embroiled in the simmering Ray Rice controversy.
Hill is suspended for the first six games of the season for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. It is the third suspension handed down to Hill in the past three years: He missed four games in 2012 and another four in 2013 for drug and illegal substance violations.
The Giants loved the way Hill performed on the field — he emerged last season as a forceful presence on defense moving into the starting lineup for the injured Stevie Brown — but finally had enough of his off-field issues. The third suspension was the final straw for the Giants, who grew to view Hill as unreliable.
Hill is eligible to be reinstated on Oct. 13.
The Ravens are under the microscope because of Rice, their star running back, who is suspended the first two games of the season under the league’s personal conduct policy. Video shows Rice dragging his then-fiancee (now wife) Janay Palmer, apparently unconscious, out of an elevator at an Atlantic City casino after what police said was a physical altercation. Rice was arrested for assault, but avoided jail time by agreeing to attend an intervention program.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has come under fire for what is perceived to be a light penalty leveled against Rice, who will also lose three game checks.
The Giants have moved on from Hill. They re-signed Brown, who has recovered from surgery to repair a torn ACL, and also signed Quintin Demps, entering his seventh NFL season, for added depth at safety.