Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s hand injury won’t keep him off the football field, but it does look like his Fortnite grind will be slowing for the time being.
“I think I’ll be fine man,” Hill said in response to a question about his injury. “The only thing I’m bummed about is I won’t really be able to play Fortnite.”
Hill streams his Fortnite gameplay often and openly jokes that his biggest “opp” is players in the Peely skin, who have trolled him in the past.
Hill has been one of the NFL’s most dangerous wide receivers since he joined the league in 2016. As many other professional sports players have done in the modern era, he’s turned to streaming and gaming as a secondary venture in his spare time away from the sport.
The NFL, in general, has long recognized that it has a problem with connecting with youth culture, and it has made several attempts to connect with a younger audience that is more into gaming than ever before. The NFL has placed team skins into Fortnite, and Hill’s former Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes is a part of Fortnite‘s Icon Series. The fingerprints of sports stardom are all across the esports and gaming landscape, even if interest has cooled in recent years.
NFL stars have a limited shelf life. The rough, violent game takes quite a toll on players’ bodies, and many of them create alternate revenue streams so they can sustain an income when their playing days are over. As long as streaming is relevant in the business world, you’ll see more and more high-profile celebrities joining up in their game of choosing. At this point, it’s not abnormal to see stars playing video games, it’s expected.
