10 minute read
COVER STORY
44
44 HAUTE TRAVEL
The best seaside hotels for fun in the sun
52 HAUTE FASHION
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of LouisVuitton’s
Objets Nomades and iconic bags, the best cruise collections of summer, and an inside look at Dior’s new
Dioriviera collection
84 HAUTE BEAUTY
The procedures that you need to beware of after spending time in the sun, plus some fast facts about
Botox and fillers
120 HAUTE JOAILLERIE
Precious pinks — the most stunning jewelry shade of summer
121 SCENE
The hottest Haute Living events of the season
HAUTE BEAUTY84 HAUTE TIME34
HAUTE JOAILLERIE, PAGE 120
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Stunning Modern Farmhouse
WELCOME TO THE WELCOME TO THE
TYREEK “THE CHEETAH” HILL IS ALREADY ON THE PROWL AND CHASING GREATNESS IN THE MAGIC CITY.
BY LAURA SCHREFFLER PHOTOGRAPHY NICK GARCIA STYLING ELYSZE HELD GROOMING LESLIE MUNSELL SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE FOUR SEASONS RESIDENCES, MIAMI
yreek Hill has a secret. Or, should I say, rather, he had a secret (sorry, Tyreek). The newly minted Miami Dolphin wide receiver has slyly kept a home in the Magic City since 2018 — back when he was still very much an integral part of the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I’ve had a place here for about four years now, but nobody really knew about it. You’ve got to be very discreet with what you do,” the 28-year-old athlete sagely confides during our May Zoom call.
Hill has been biding his time and plotting his move for years now. First, he rented. Then, he purchased a place in south Florida, but sold it after buying a $1.3 million mansion in Lees Summit, Missouri, during his tenure with the Chiefs. But he just couldn’t quit Florida, and so he decided to invest in a Southwest Ranches mansion. Which, in the end, was the right call. “I’m just happy I don’t have to leave now!” he declares.
Hill, a Pearson, Georgia, native, finally got his wish to become an official Miamian on March 23, when he was traded to the Dolphins. It was a big win, and not just because of his love for the location alone: his transition was a huge financial score given that he signed a 4-year, $120 million extension, including $72.2 million guaranteed, earning him the distinction of now being the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL.
To be honest, as much as he loved his years in Kansas City — where he played exclusively for the same team he was first signed by in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft — Miami is much more his speed. And when your nickname is “the cheetah,” that speed is superfast.
“Man, this city is always alive!” he enthuses of his now-permanent home. “There’s never a dull moment. There’s plenty of variety here as far as food, as far as people, as far as clubs, or whatever the case may be. You literally have a diverse situation with everything. There are so many cultures, so many things to learn. I just love it out here.”
It’s his vibe all day, every day, he says. Beach, sun, fun, repeat — especially in the off-season, when he and his kids can loaf on the sand, and he can play beach volleyball to his heart’s content. “I can literally stay on the beach all day,” he admits. “I’m chilling, catching nice vibes, getting that vitamin D year-round, baby!”
Hill’s excitement is palatable, but it also seems to be his natural state of being. Exuberance, excitement, and inexhaustible joie de vivre spills out of him like sweat. But really, what isn’t there to be happy about? The sun is shining, he’s surrounded by friends and family, including his mom, who’s currently in the kitchen making him chicken, and it’s the off-season, so he’s allowing himself the luxury of “eating like crap” with copious amounts of Popeyes and a plethora of glazed donuts. All is right with the world.
Yet, as exciting as it is, moving to Miami isn’t all fun and games for Hill — he’s got a purpose in being here, after all. Despite having won a Super Bowl with Kansas City (LIV in 2020), his extravagant paycheck, having been selected to six Pro Bowls in six years, and being named to the NFL2010s AllDecade Team as a punt returner, he still has something to prove.
“When I first came into the league, there were a lot of people who wrote me off, a lot of people who said I couldn’t do this or that, that I was too small. Even now, after I got traded by the Chiefs, people are saying, ‘Your game is going to decline because you left playing with the greatest quarterback of all time.’ I’m like, ‘You guys literally have no idea. You clearly don’t watch football, huh?’ I just don’t deal with it or engage because the internet is always ready to attack if you say something on Twitter.”
So if he’s not launching counterattacks or jumping jungle cat-like on his opponents, how does he drown out the noise? “I just chill and laugh, man,” he says. “The way that I think about it is this: I know at the end of the day that people are going to talk regardless of if I’m doing good or bad. When I was in KC, they were talking. Now that I left, they’re still talking. So you just have to tune it out and make yourself proud. That’s something my mom told me, my grandparents told me, and that’s something that I live by. You can’t make other people happy; you’ve just got to make yourself happy. I feel like being traded to the Miami Dolphins, being able to show people who I truly am, my personality, show them who I am outside of just being a football helmet, is basically me doing that — making myself happy. I’m chasing my dream, my goals, until I get to the top — and the top is the Hall of Fame career.”
Hill says, that as he’s matured as both a person and a player, his love of the game has only increased, and his drive to succeed along with it. “When I was younger, in elementary, middle school, high school, and college, my main goal was just to make it to the NFL. As the years went by, my passion for the game began to grow; I began to understand it more and understand how quick it can go. How fast you can get hurt, how fast you can get traded, how fast you can get cut. I began to respect the game even more.”
Regardless of what naysayers and keyboard warriors might say, it’s all love between him and his former team, and which he has no problem avowing. The longer he’s in the league, the more the phrase “for the love of the game” applies — and the guys he hit the gridiron with for the last six years can take a lot of the credit. “I played with arguably the best tight end in the game, Travis Kelce, the greatest quarterback of all time, Patrick Mahomes, and [had] one of the greatest coaches, Andy Reid. It’s just been a blessing to have those guys in my life and to have helped mold me into the player I am today. Before them, I was just another guy who was happy to make a play or two on ESPN, you know? But now I’m more mature, more of a vocal leader, and I’m like, ‘Hey guys, we need to go out there and win this game.’ I’m a big-picture guy now. I understand that everybody has a role, and that’s how championship teams are built.”
Which is, of course, his current priority: bringing that sweet, sweet Vince Lombardi trophy to the Magic City. And he wants it, he says, as much for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa as he does for himself. “I go into work every day, man, and I look at Tua. He’s such a hard-working dude. A lot of people don’t give him credit for what he has done in his career. And then I see him out on the practice field, and he’s tremendous. He can put the ball anywhere on the field, standing in one spot. I just want to see him play, man, and play by his side. That’s part of the reason why I chose the Miami Dolphins — I wanted to play with the lefty.” [Tagovailoa being an anomaly as a left-handed quarterback].
One might assume from this effusive praise that he and Tagovailoa are closer than can be, but ironically, in reality, they’ve only just met. When Hill was traded to the team, he tracked down the QB’s digits, got in touch, and “the rest is history — we’ve been talking ever since. He’s a good dude,” Hill says. “You can sense that when you’re around him; you can feel his energy, which is genuine and pure. I can’t ask anything else from a man. He’s a good friend, and a good teammate to have on and off the field. I can always count on him.”
He’s not the only one. Hill immediately found himself in the position of having a solid crew in his new teammates, who welcomed him into the Dolphins fold with open arms. Take today, for instance. He and some of the guys were meant to be hitting the high seas, chilling on a boat, but choppy waters disrupted their plans. Instead, later, he’s bowling with his homies.
“We hang out all the time,” he shares of the guys who have been patiently waiting for him to make Miami his permanent home before throwing him an official “Welcome to the Magic City” rager, which apparently is on the agenda for the coming weekend. Except that said wild night is going to look a lot less like an evening at LIV and a lot more like a quiet dinner and a day on the golf course. Which suits Hill just fine. “I feel like [being here] is less of an introduction and more like a homecoming, because I knew most of these guys before I was even playing for the Chiefs. I’ve thrown numerous parties here, and a bunch of the Dolphins have even shown up for my birthdays, so really, being around them isn’t new. When I first walked into the locker room, it was like, ‘Hey, man.’ [Gangster nod.] Hey.’ The guys already knew it was coming. I kind of felt like I was going to get traded here, and I feel like everything happened for a reason.”
Hill is a big believer in fate, and only time will tell what it holds for him in Miami. So watch this space...
