Wide receiver Tyreek Hill is considered the fastest man in the NFL. In 2022, after winning and losing a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs, Tyreek signed a 4-year $120 million contract to play for the Miami Dolphins. Since then, he has not been back to the Super Bowl, much less won a playoff game with the Dolphins. In his absence, the Chiefs won 2 Super Bowls. In 2025, the Chiefs go to their 3 straight Super Bowl in quest to the historical Threepeat. Recently Tyreek voiced his discontent playing for the Dolphins. He said that wants out of Miami.
After Tyreek Hill left the Chiefs for the Dolphins, he threw shade on Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He said that Dolphins Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was the “more accurate passer” than Mahomes. Really? Patrick Mahomes may be the next GOAT (Greatest of All-Time) NFL Quarterback. He’s closing on the GOAT Tom Brady. Sure, Tyreek had his Miami Quarterback’s back. But better than Patrick Mahomes? WTF?
When Tyreek left the Chiefs, he said that he was taking the bag (the money) for his family. Okay, that’s legit. ESPN First Take Host Stephen A. Smith said, “Once you get the bag, it’s about you (Tyreek)!”
ESPN Analyst former NFL Quarterback Dan Orlovsky said to Tyreek, “Don’t complain about the life that you chose… When you complain, you make yourself the victim.” Dan was right on.
We own our choices in life, our circumstances, and don’t make excuses. When I make excuses and complain, I make myself the victim. I take away my power. I can’t blame others for what’s goes on with me. I’m responsible for me. I change myself. I change my circumstances. I’m the only one who can. What happens or happened to me, that’s on me to heal and fix. No one else can.
When I was a little boy, Dad scared the hell out of me. Childhood was my no-win scenario. I never knew what I did or didn’t do that got Dad so angry with me. I got that I was his greatest disappointment in life. I was not the son he wanted. I was not good enough for Dad; I never would be. I was not good enough for anyone else, including myself. I feared inside myself that I was not good enough, that I never would be. I chose that life. My life sentence. I didn’t know any better.
As fucked up as it was for me, my fear inside was not Dad’s fault. That was on me. It wasn’t Dad’s responsibility to change. I had to change, not him. I had to fix and heal myself. That was all on me.
In the First Noble Truth of Buddhism, there will be always suffering in life. No shit. I lived that. The Second Noble Truth of Buddhism is the source of suffering. My childhood, my past was my source of suffering. I can’t do anything about the past. Lady MacBeth said, “What’s done cannot be undone.” The past is the past.
The Fourth Noble Truth is the path to end suffering. On my path to end suffering, I participated in therapy with Lance Miller and trained in Aikido with the late Mizukami Sensei and Ishibashi Sensei. I didn’t complain about the life I had, the one I chose, the life thrown upon me. I’m not the victim of my life. I source my life.
In Aikido, I learned: Just train. It’s not like I have to get somewhere or be someone else. The purpose of the training is to release my fear. I enter what I fear and hold my position. I let go my fear inside that I’m not good enough over, and over, and over again. Although my fear inside never completely disappears, every time I enter what I fear, I let go more of my fear inside me. I free myself. I have nothing to do with what goes on inside someone else. I have a say in what goes on inside me. In therapy with Lance Miller, I learned to love myself for who I am and forgive myself for who I’m not. I work on myself, not on others. That’s all I can do. I don’t complain. I put my head down. Put in the work. Just train.
Maybe, we all might not like the life that we chose or the life that we inherited. That’s all on us. We can’t change others. We can only change ourselves. We work on ourselves, not on them. That’s all that we can do. O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba said, “Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.”
Don’t complain. Just train. It’s not like you have to get somewhere or be someone else. We can all have a meaningful life, a life that we love.
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Photo: iStock
