Kansas City Chiefs News & Rumors

Former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt went unclaimed on waivers after the mandatory 24-hour period. Hunt, technically, is a free agent, though he is unlikely to be signed by any club.

Video of Hunt’s February skirmish in a Cleveland hotel leaked late last week, spelling the end of his Chiefs tenure. In the disturbing security cam footage, Hunt is seen kicking a 19-year-old woman who is down on the ground. This did not jibe with the version of events that Hunt gave to the Chiefs at the time of the incident, leading the Chiefs to cut him hours after the video went public.

Because of Hunt’s accomplishments and his cheap rookie contract, it was speculated that another team might roll the dice by claiming Hunt. After all, the Redskins claimed embattled linebacker Reuben Foster off waivers just a couple of weeks ago following his second domestic violence incident of 2019. Instead, teams opted to let Hunt and his inexpensive two years of control fall by the wayside.

It remains to seen whether Hunt will get another opportunity in the NFL. Ray Rice never saw the field again after his infamous hotel incident, but Hunt is a much more effective player than Rice was at that stage of his career. Even if Hunt draws interest, it’s unlikely that he’ll be eligible to play in Week 1 of the 2019 season. The NFL’s investigation is ongoing and it will almost certainly result in a lengthy suspension.

Hunt, 23, led the league with 1,327 rushing yards last year while adding eight scores on the ground and three through the air. He also caught 53 passes for 455 yards, positioning him as one of the best running backs in the NFL. This year, Hunt averaged 4.6 yards per carry with 14 touchdowns in total.

10:56am: ESPN’s Lisa Salters interviewed Hunt from his Kansas City home this morning, which Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk summarizes. Hunt acknowledges lying to the Chiefs about the incident and said that he is ashamed of his actions during the February altercation. He said he never met his alleged victim before the night in question and has not had any contact with her since. He also confirmed that the NFL never broached the incident with him.

Salters did not ask Hunt about the alleged June incident.

08:46am: In addition to the disturbing incident in February that compelled the Chiefs to cut star running back Kareem Hunt, Hunt was also allegedly involved in a separate matter in which he is said to have punched a man in the face at an Ohio resort, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. That second incident took place in June, and the league was investigating that altercation even before the video of the February brawl was released.

Rapoport says that Hunt could therefore be handed a longer suspension than what was originally reported. As Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com writes, and as we wrote yesterday, Hunt can expect a minimum six-game ban for the February incident. If the NFL finds enough evidence to indicate that Hunt took part in another violent act — and according to Rapoport, the league believes it does have sufficient evidence — then Hunt could be banned for even longer.

Rapoport also writes that Hunt would consider simply admitting wrongdoing and serving a potential NFL suspension as soon as possible rather than waiting on the Commissioner Exempt list while the league finishes its investigation. The problem with that, of course, is that Hunt cannot serve a suspension if he is not on a team, so if he goes unclaimed on waivers — the deadline for clubs to place a waiver claim on him is 4pm ET tomorrow — he will need to wait until someone is willing to sign him before the suspension clock starts running.

Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports says that some league executives do believe that Hunt will be claimed on waivers, and the consensus is that he will be playing in 2019 one way or another. La Canfora adds that the league will schedule a formal interview with Hunt — which it did not do following the initial police reports back in February — and will reach back out to the alleged victim and other witnesses. The NFL did not receive cooperation from those parties during its original investigation, and as we already learned, it was denied the video footage that was recently released by TMZ.

Breer suggests that the league did its due diligence in trying to obtain that footage, and he and Rapoport detail the NFL’s efforts in the pieces linked above. However, it is certainly curious that the league did not at least reach out to Hunt and instead relied on the Chiefs’ interview with him, and Nate Taylor of The Athletic reports that the league actually told Kansas City to stop trying to obtain the video once it began its investigation.

As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes, it makes sense that the league would take that step, as it has exclusive jurisdiction over off-field, offseason matters of personal conduct. But the fact that TMZ was able to get the video and the NFL could not — and that the league did not get out in front of the matter by acknowledging that it was not getting the type of cooperation it needed to thoroughly investigate — will once again subject the league to public scrutiny.

Hunt could still face charges from either incident, and it will be interesting to see whether either of the alleged victims elects to file charges now that these incidents are firmly in the national spotlight.

When the NFL’s investigation concludes, the Chiefs expect the team’s former Pro Bowl running back Kareem Hunt will receive a six-game suspension, The Athletic’s Nate Taylor writes. Taylor also notes the investigation is not expected to conclude until the offseason. 

On Friday, a video was released by TMZ Sports that showed Hunt shoving a woman to the ground and kicking her during an incident at a Cleveland hotel in February. After the security footage was made public, the Chiefs released the second-year back, who led the league in rushing yards in 2017.

Neither the NFL, nor the Chiefs, saw the footage before it was released, the league said in a statement Friday night. Following the release, the Chiefs said the events depicted in the video differed from what Hunt disclosed to them at the time of their investigation. According to Taylor, Hunt told the team, “I never left the (hotel) room. I didn’t do a thing.” Taylor adds that if Hunt would’ve been truthful, he more than likely would not have been released:

“Had Hunt told the truth in February, the Chiefs, according to team sources, would have pursued every option available to them through the league to ensure the possibility of him remaining on the team’s roster.”

One team source also told Taylor that Hunt probably cost himself $20 MM in the form of a multiyear extension with the Chiefs, which was expected to be discussed following the 2018 season.

The six-game suspension would be the same punishment that Ezekiel Elliott received following his incidents last year. One difference between that case and this one is that there is footage to document Hunt’s part. On Friday, Hunt was placed on the Commissioner Exempt list, prohibiting from partaking in practice or playing in games.