National Football League

Report: Giants safety Will Hill blames second-hand smoke for latest suspension

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:13 p.m. ET

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New York Giants safety Will Hill reportedly isn't taking the blame for the latest failed drug test that will force him to miss the first six games of the upcoming NFL season.

According to The Star Ledger, former Giants defensive back Deon Grant said Hill, 24, thought he might be able to avoid his third drug-related suspension in three years because it supposedly resulted from second-hand marijuana smoke.

"He felt like he had a great chance of beating it because of the circumstances," Grant said. "He said, 'I'll be honest with you. If it was something that I did, I would tell you I messed up. But I didn't. It was an incident in a club where people were (smoking marijuana) and it got in my system. It's not like how my urine was a certain kind of way before when I did do it. It's the total opposite right now. They found something in my urine, but it's not the same thing they found when I did make that mistake.'"

That "mistake" came last year, when Hill admitted to smoking marijuana and was suspended under the NFL's substance abuse policy. Hill's first suspension was for using Adderall, which he later said he needs to treat ADHD. He was also suspended at the University of Florida after being caught with marijuana.

"As far as I know this offseason, he was pretty good, he was staying straight and he was taking care what he needed to," safety Antrel Rolle told the paper recently. "He was training hard, working out hard."

Details of Hill's positive test, which led to Friday's announcement of the suspension, have not been disclosed.

Hill was arrested in December on a warrant related to child support payments. According to the paper, he had been a passenger in a car that was pulled over "because (the driver) traveled straight through an exit-only lane over the hashmarks in the roadway, police said." The arresting officer detected the "odor of burned marijuana" and observed "cigar shavings throughout the vehicle," but no drugs were found.

The Star Ledger writes that Hill hasn't talked publically in the current offseason and his agent did not return calls for comment.