Browns sign troubled RB Hunt dropped by Chiefs
Young, talented runner given a second chance from his hometown team
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Browns’ signing of Kareem Hunt once again shines a spotlight somewhere other than the team’s on-field performance.
Hunt, who was released 2½ months ago by Kansas City after a video surfaced showing the star running back pushing and kicking a woman, signed with Cleveland on Monday.
Hunt was placed on the NFL’s commissioner’s exempt list hours before the Chiefs released him, a move that drew public support after he was seen in a physical altercation with the woman last February during an argument in the lobby of a downtown hotel where he stayed.
He was in his second season with Kansas City and was one of the team’s best players. He led the NFL in rushing as a rookie in 2017.
The Browns are now giving the 23-year-old, who is from Cleveland, a chance to restart his career, though he still could be suspended by the league under its personal conduct policy for the incident and two others that surfaced after he was released by the Chiefs. Hunt has not been charged with a crime. An NFL investigation is ongoing.
And the Browns, coming off a tumultuous 7-8-1 season that followed an 0-16 record in 2017 — with a new coach after Hue Jackson was fired midseason in 2018 — are creating headlines by giving a player a second chance even as the NFL has not yet decided Hunt’s status.
Browns general manager John Dorsey drafted Hunt while working for Kansas City and said their relationship was an “important part of this decision-making process.”
“But we then did extensive due diligence with many individuals, including clinical professionals, to have a better understanding of the person he is today and whether it was prudent to sign him,” said Dorsey, who was Kansas City’s GM from 2013-16. “There were two important factors: One is that Kareem took full responsibility for his egregious actions and showed true remorse and secondly, just as impor-
tantly, he is undergoing and is committed to necessary professional treatment and a plan that has been clearly laid out.”
Dorsey went on to say the Browns “fully understand and respect the complexity of questions and issues in signing a player with Kareem’s history and do not condone his actions. Given what we know about Kareem through our extensive research, we believe he deserves a second chance but certainly with the understanding that he has to go through critical and essential steps to become a performing member of this organization, aside from what the NFL determines from their ongoing investigation.”
Dorsey added that the Browns have given Hunt “detailed plans with expectations laid out that he understands and must follow.”
He said any similar incident will not be tolerated.
In a statement released by the team, Hunt expressed remorse and thanked the Browns for giving him an opportunity.
“First off, I would like to once again apologize for my actions last year,” Hunt said. “What I did was wrong and inexcusable. That is not the man I was raised to be, and I’ve learned a great deal from that experience and certainly should have been more truthful about it after the fact. I’m extremely grateful that John Dorsey, Dee and Jimmy Haslam and the Cleveland Browns organization are granting me the opportunity to earn their trust and represent their organization in the best way possible on and off the field.
“I am committed to following the necessary steps to learn and to be a better and healthier person from this situation. I also understand the expectations that the Browns have clearly laid out and that I have to earn my way back to the NFL. I’m a work in progress as a person, but I’m committed to taking advantage of the support systems that I have in place to become the best and healthier version of myself.”
Hunt’s incident is one of the more highprofile assault cases to plague the league in recent years.
In 2014, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was captured on video punching and knocking out his thenfiancee in an elevator. He was released by the team and never returned to the NFL.
The Browns likely will receive backlash for their decision to sign Hunt.
Cleveland recently hired Freddie Kitchens as its coach. Kitchens served as the team’s interim offensive coordinator for the final eight games, and his strong connection with rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield was one of the main reasons he got the job.
Hunt, of course, could wind up with a suspension for a portion of the 2019 season. A player who is placed on the exempt list may not practice or attend games, but with the team’s permission he may be present at its facility on “a reasonable basis for meetings, individual workouts, therapy and rehabilitation, and other permitted non-football activities.”
Hunt could have a major role with the Browns, who have backfield depth.
Nick Chubb ran for 996 yards as a rookie last season and the team has Duke Johnson, a versatile back who also is one of the team’s best receivers. Johnson signed a three-year, $15.6 million contract in June.
REID: Eric Reid has signed a three-year contract worth more than $22 million with the Carolina Panthers, a deal the safety believes is additional proof that NFL owners conspired to keep him out of the league last season.
Reid said Monday he believes he got “fair market value” after making just $1.69 million last season from the Panthers.
Reid still has a collusion case pending against NFL owners, alleging that he wasn’t signed last offseason as a direct result of his decision to kneel for the national anthem alongside former teammate Colin Kaepernick in protest of social and racial injustice. Kaepernick is still out of the league and Reid believes that won’t change anytime soon.
MURRAY: Kyler Murray, a two-sport star at Oklahoma, announced Tuesday via Twitter that he will focus on the NFL draft, scheduled for April 25-27. The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback didn’t mention the A’s in his post.
NFL draft experts project Murray to be taken in the first round after his historic 2018 football season with the Sooners.
The A’s will place Murray on the restricted list and still hold his baseball rights. But for now, Oakland has wasted the No. 9 overall pick from last year’s baseball draft.
While the A’s get no compensation in the form of a draft pick, Murray will have to return the bulk of his $4.66 million signing bonus. The quarterback will return $1.29 million of the $1.5 million he already has received. He also forfeits $3.1 million due March 1.
CASHION: Former NFL referee Red Cashion, known for his vociferous calls of “FIRST DOWN,” has died. He was 87.
Cashion died Sunday, according to Calloway-Jones Life & Legacy funeral home.
Cashion retired from the NFL in 1997 after officiating for 25 years, 21 one of them as a referee. He worked two Super Bowls.
NFL Referees Association executive director Scott Green called Cashion “the kind of man everyone wanted to emulate both on and off the field, and he gave so much of his time to all of us.”
Born Mason L. “Red” Cashion was born Nov. 10, 1931 in College Station, Texas. He ran track and played football, basketball and baseball at A&M Consolidated High School, then attended Texas A&M on a baseball scholarship, graduating in 1953. He was then commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
He began his officiating career while finishing his undergraduate studies at Texas A&M.