Heck, it worked like a charm a year ago, when Hill returned from a four-game suspension, hit the field and made up for lost time with some of the most jarring hits a Giants safety has made in, well, forever. He quickly became a starter and immediately became a difference-maker on a Giants defense that got better and better. Hill’s presence and the upgraded performance was no coincidence.
Based solely on football, this was the way to go, and it’s doubtful the Giants would have been branded as enablers if they kept Hill around, though this was his third suspension — two for violating the league’s illegal drug policy, with a performance-enhancing drug violation stuffed in between. Hill’s misdeeds hurt only himself and, in a league where violence against women and drunk driving is part of the landscape, there would be far worse miscreants roaming the NFL sidelines than Will Hill.
But … no.
“It’s too easy to do right than to keep doing wrong,’’ said Antrel Rolle, who merely days ago called Hill a teammate.
Rolle, of course, did not make the call to jettison the 24-year old Hill, to cut ties with a player who, if he played in 2014 the way he did in 2013 was a heartbeat away from earning somewhere around $3 million per year. Sometimes players look askance when their team banishes someone who clearly needs help more than punishment but not this time. Rolle has great sympathy for Hill but greater clarity for the way it had to be.
“Will knew what situation he had put the Giants in, he kind of forced their hand,’’ Rolle said. “At that point in time you can’t really depend on Will to help us out and to really do anything for us if you’re suspended repeatedly, season after season after season.
“It didn’t surprise me. It stings, it stings like hell. Will is a like a little brother to myself. He’s a phenomenal player, probably one of the most gifted safeties that we have. For him to keep moving himself in the wrong direction, it’s not a good thing.’’
A team can do what it can do, but there are no guardian angels watching over a troubled player once he leaves the facility or ventures off into the great unknown of the offseason.
Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell uses a three-safety look and Hill, alongside Rolle and Stevie Brown would have been a formidable trio. The spring and summer will come and go and someone else will emerge but no one will have Hill’s blend of speed, size, strength and, above all else, that mean streak on the field that leads to bad things for running backs, receivers and tight ends.
“Because when you run a business you have to be able to rely and depend on people to be there when you need them to perform their duties,” coach Tom Coughlin said, explaining why Hill had to go.
Two days after Hill became a former Giant, the NFL announced Jayron Hosley, a third-year cornerback, was suspended for the first four games for violating the illegal drug policy. This was from a positive test last season and, after an appeal delayed the proceedings, Hosley finally relented and accepted his fate.
There is no way to link Hosley to Hill, but the timing triggered innuendo, punch lines and, if not speculation then certainly a swirl of notoriety the Giants had to swallow, no matter how bitter the aftertaste.
“That’s something that we don’t need around here,’’ Rolle said. “We don’t need to have bad pub, guys ending up on Twitter saying, ‘What’s going on, what’s up with the secondary?’ It’s a bad reflection. It doesn’t look good.’’
Hill reportedly has signed with the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League and the Giants will wish him well, from afar.