Ike Hilliard

Wide receiver

The Washington Redskins can thank LeRoy Hill for their wide receivers coach.

In 2008, the Seattle linebacker knocked Ike Hilliard out of the NFL. His vicious hit knocked Hilliard — then with Tampa Bay — out cold and brought him to the realization that he had enough.

“After the game, my wife begged me to get out of football,” Hilliard said. “LeRoy Hill put me to sleep. It was a YouTube hit.”

So, after 546 NFL receptions in 12 seasons, the former first-round pick decided to hang it up.

Hilliard had been thinking about coaching even before the hit. He called Jay Gruden, who had just been named the coach of the Florida Tuskers in the United Football League, to congratulate him and Gruden offered Hilliard a job. Since then, he has coached with the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins and spent a year in Washington before rejoining the Redskins in 2014 as wide receivers coach.

He lives in Ashburn, Va., near the Redskins facility and last year decided to have his wife and five children (four girls) remain in south Miami to live a more stable life around friends.

“I go back and forth,” he said. “She’s been chasing me around the NFL for a long time.”