The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Haslam unhappy with Hunt’s latest incident
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam weighed on Kareem Hunt’s arrest last month: “It’s not good. Kareem knows he’s got to do better.”
Kareem Hunt better not get caught up in a situation similar to his arrest during a traffic stop last month if he wants to continue his football career with the Browns.
Team owner Jimmy Haslam met with reporters on Feb. 5 in Berea after a news conference introducing Andrew Berry as general manager. Haslam made it very clear he is unhappy with Hunt, who will be an unrestricted free agent if he doesn’t sign an extension before the 2020 League Year begins on March 18.
Hunt was ticketed on Interstate 90 by Rocky River police for driving 77 MPH in a 60 MPH zone on Jan. 21. No big deal, but police searching his car found marijuana and an unsealed container of vodka in a backpack on the backseat. Hunt told the officer he would have failed a drug test if he had been tested at that moment. Hunt was not arrested for the marijuana or vodka.
“It’s not good,” Haslam said bluntly. “Kareem knows he’s got to do better. Kevin (head coach Kevin Stefanski) and Andrew have talked to him about it and I’ll just leave it at that. What he did is not acceptable; he’s got to do better.”
The Browns already gave Hunt a second chance when they signed him in February of 2019 after he was cut by the Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 30, 2018, the day a video surfaced of him shoving and kicking a woman in February of 2018. The NFL suspended the former South High running back for the first eight games of 2019 with the Browns for that incident.
Police video and sound of the Jan. 21 arrest for speeding captures Hunt lamenting he should have been playing with the Chiefs for the Super Bowl.
Haslam was asked whether the Browns want to keep Hunt after this latest incident.
“If Kareem follow the expectations we’ve laid out for him,” Haslam said. “We have and will continue to work closely with Kareem. But he knows our expectations are higher than what he showed a week or two ago.”
The Hunt incident was the second Stefanski had to deal with since being named Browns head coach Jan. 12 that has nothing to do with what goes on on the football field. The first, which pales compared to what Hunt did, was wide receiver Odell Beckham swatting a security officer on the butt in the victorious LSU locker room after the NCAA championship game Jan. 13 in New Orleans. A warrant for Beckham’s arrest (later withdrawn) was issued three days later.
“That’s the (head coaching) gig,” Stefanski said after Haslam spoke. “We have expectations for our players. We’ll lay them out once we get everybody back in here April 6. I’ll be very direct with our players on what we expect of them off the field.
“…I certainly want Kareem and Odell to be here this year. They’re players I believe in. They’re two different situations. To lump them together, I would put them with all our players. There are standards we’ll set and we’ll ask them to adhere to those standards.”
Beckham, a three-time Pro Bowl player with the Giants, caught 74 passes for 1,035 yards and four touchdowns for the Browns in 2019.
Hunt, the NFL rushing leader with the 1,327 yards with the Chiefs in 2017, carried the ball 43 times for 179 yards and a touchdown and caught 37 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown in eight games with the Browns last year.
Hunt rushed for 824 yards and seven touchdowns in 11 games with the Chiefs in 2018 before they cut him with five games left on the schedule.