NFL Investigating Referee Adrian Hill After He Berated Vikings LB Eric Wilson for Accidental Collision

NFL referee Adrian Hill was accidentally knocked to the turf by Minnesota Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson on Sunday, then berated Wilson as the linebacker tried to help him up, and the NFL is now investigating the exchange. The collision happened during Minnesota’s 15-10 win over the Miami Dolphins at U.S. Bank Stadium, and a video of Hill’s reaction posted by the NFL on FOX account was deleted after about 20 minutes, talkSPORT reports.

What happened between Adrian Hill and Eric Wilson?

Wilson was pushed into the referee on a play that was already dead. Hill had whistled the third-down play dead for a neutral zone infraction, but Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon kept blocking Wilson and shoved him backward into Hill, sending the official to the ground, talkSPORT reports.

Wilson immediately reached down to help Hill up. Hill instead got to his feet pointing and shouting, directing Wilson back to his side of the field, until another official moved between them. Hill did not throw a flag for the contact, and the game continued, but the clip spread quickly because the player offering a hand was the one being dressed down.

What did Eric Wilson say about it afterwards?

He laughed about it. “That was funny, honestly,” Wilson told reporters in the Vikings’ locker room, via talkSPORT, adding that he apologised to Hill and explained the situation on the field.

“He just said he didn’t want us fighting, me and [Gordon]. He said he was just trying to break us up,” Wilson said. That explanation matters for the league review: Hill’s position, relayed by Wilson, is that the shouting was about separating two players, not about the collision. The video, which shows Hill pointing in the face of a player holding out a hand, is why the league is looking anyway.

Why was the FOX video of the incident deleted?

Nobody has said publicly. The NFL on FOX account posted the exchange with a caption describing an unintentional collision, and the post was gone after around 20 minutes, talkSPORT reports, once ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the NFL was investigating the incident.

A broadcaster deleting a routine game clip is the detail that turned a funny moment into a story. Networks leave thousands of highlight posts up every Sunday; this one vanished at exactly the moment the league’s interest became public, and neither FOX nor the NFL has explained the takedown on the record.

Why is Hill’s case part of a bigger officiating story?

Because it was the third flashpoint in one afternoon. In Arizona’s loss to the Giants, cameras appeared to catch line judge Jeff Seeman cursing at Cardinals tight end Trey McBride as McBride argued a pass interference no-call, an incident the NFL is reviewing and the NFLPA has called unacceptable. In Buffalo, Patriots coach Mike Vrabel was flagged for swearing at an official and then called the referee sensitive.

Athlon Sports framed the pattern as a double standard: Vrabel’s profanity drew an automatic 15 yards, while the officials’ conduct is handled behind closed doors. Hill’s own crew called 20 penalties for 140 yards against the two teams, 15 of them in the first half, one short of the season high for a half, so the crew’s whole afternoon was already under a microscope before the collision. The first down Gordon and Wilson were fighting over barely registers next to any of it.

What happens next in the NFL’s review of Adrian Hill?

A quiet decision, most likely. The league historically handles referee reviews and any reprimands internally, talkSPORT notes, and officials are graded without public discipline announcements in most cases.

What to watch is whether the league says anything at all. With the Seeman review running at the same time and the NFLPA demanding the same accountability for officials that players face, two silent outcomes would land differently this week than they would in a normal one. Wilson, for his part, has already said the matter is closed between him and Hill.