Ex-Chiefs RB Hunt admits he lied to team
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Running back Kareem Hunt acknowledged that he misled the Kansas City Chiefs about his role in a February assault in a Cleveland hotel that ultimately led to his release this week.
In a live interview Sunday with ESPN, the NFL’s reigning rushing champion also said that league officials never spoke to him about the incident while conducting their own investigation, and that he never saw the security camera video until TMZ Sports posted it Friday.
In the course of a few hours, Hunt went from preparing for a game Sunday in Oakland to being sent home from the practice facility. He then was placed on the NFL’s Commissioner Exemption List, summoned back to the team facility and told that he was being released.
“They believed that I lied to them. I lied to them,” Hunt said. “They pretty much said we love you, everybody cares about you, and just we have to let you go. It was a tough conversation. And the Chiefs did what was right. I made a poor decision and I’m willing to take full responsibility.”
In the grainy, graphic video, Hunt is seen getting into an argument with a woman and several men step in to hold him back. He later pushes one of the men, knocking down a woman that Hunt admitted he did not know, and eventually kicks her while she lays on the floor.
“The Chiefs are right. I didn’t tell them everything,” Hunt said. “My actions caused this and I really wish I could apologize to them and let them know there’s no hard feelings.”
The video brought immediate comparisons to the footage of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was seen punching out his then-fiancee in an elevator. That incident led to a lengthy legal saga, and it culminated in an investigation by Robert Mueller into the NFL’s mishandling of it.
The league eventually hired more staff to conduct such investigations, and announced it would take a more active role in handling similar cases in the future.
The NFL made multiple attempts to obtain the video of Hunt, but the hotel said corporate policy only allowed footage to be given to law enforcement. The NFL then contacted Cleveland police, but the department said Saturday it did not pursue the video because it was not a felony-level case.
When asked whether the NFL spoke directly to Hunt about it, he replied: “No, they have not.”
The NFL said in a statement Sunday that its investigation began immediately after the incident in February and that the league “continues to pursue a complete understanding of the facts.”
“The NFL’s ongoing investigation will include further attempts to speak to the complainants involved in the incident,” the statement said. “It will include a review of the new information that was made public on Friday — which was not available to the NFL previously — as well as further conversations with all parties involved in the incident.”
The statement did not say whether the league attempted to contact Hunt.
Hunt said he had just purchased an apartment in the Cleveland hotel and had several friends over, and that he did not know the woman involved in the assault. Hunt said the argument came at the end of “a long night” and that “it was just a disagreement. I honestly wanted her just to leave.”
“That’s not an excuse,” he said. “I’m not that person in that video.”
Hunt pointed out that he was raised by his mother and grandmother, and they “they always taught me well. I know right from wrong and I’m a person that always wants to make everyone happy.”
Still, Hunt has been in trouble before. He was suspended in his junior season at Toledo for a violation of team rules, and he was accused of a second, unrelated assault over the summer. As in the case with the hotel incident, no charges were filed in that case.
“... the Chiefs did what was right. I made a poor decision and I’m willing to take full responsibility.” Kareem Hunt