Chiefs are releasing RB Kareem Hunt

Expect scattered tweets n stuff to fill up this thread as the story unfolds.

Contribute if you find anything!

ProFootballTalk@ProFootballTalk
Bad nine days for NFL. Adrian Peterson admits that he still spanks son, league says nothing. Reuben Foster arrested, cut, claimed on waivers and paid to not play. Kareem Hunt video that league knew or should have known about emerges out of the blue

Adam Schefter@AdamSchefter
Neither the NFL nor the Chiefs viewed the Kareem Hunt video before it became public today, per official.

Ian Rapoport@RapSheet
Neither the NFL, nor the #Chiefs, had seen the video before it was published today. I’m told the league made several attempts to obtain it. The hotel said it was corporate policy to only turn it over to law enforcement. Cleveland PD would not provide it to the league.

http://www.tmz.com/category/tmzsports?adid=TMZ_Web_Nav_TMZSports

TMZ Sports has obtained video of Kansas City Chiefs star running back Kareem Hunt shoving, bull-rushing and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel back in February.
Kareem has not missed a single game this season despite the incident happening MONTHS before the 2018 NFL season kicked off … and team CEO Clark Hunt publicly stated in August he doubted Hunt would be suspended.
In the video, Hunt is seen arguing with a 19-year-old woman outside of his room at The Metropolitan at the 9 at 3:22 AM on February 10, 2018.
Hunt turns a corner and confronts the woman, shoving her hard. The woman strikes him back in the face … and that’s when Hunt goes berserk.
As friends try to hold him back, the 2017 Pro Bowler — who led the league in rushing yards — explodes and knocks one of his friends into the woman … who both go flying into a wall.
Both Kareem’s male friend and the woman appear dazed — but Kareem makes his way over to the female and kicks her while she’s crouching on the ground … knocking her over.
Police were called to the scene but no arrests were made. According to police reports, obtained by TMZ Sports, surveillance video from the hotel was obtained by law enforcement. We’re told that video is part of the evidence that was submitted to prosecutors.

Still, cops did not arrest Hunt and no charges were filed because officers say they were unable to determine if a crime had been committed.
At the time of the incident, the woman told police the whole thing started because Kareem kicked her out of his room after she refused to hook up with one of the men in Kareem’s entourage.
Kareem’s friends told cops the woman had gone crazy when asked to leave and called Kareem the n-word … and then struck one of Kareem’s female friends once things turned physical.
Video thumbnail

Unclear why the NFL has not taken any action against Hunt. We reached out to the league to find out if they pursued the video. We also reached out to cops to find out if the NFL contacted them about the footage as well.
The whole incident is reminiscent of the Ray Rice scandal when the NFL star knocked out his then-fiancee in a hotel elevator in Feb. 2014.
The NFL suspended him indefinitely — but only after TMZ Sports published the brutal knockout video from inside the elevator … video the NFL claimed they had not seen until our story.
After the incident, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged failures in the NFL’s investigative process and said they would overhaul their protocol.
Since then, the NFL claims it has tried to be tougher on players accused of attacking women — most famously, the league suspended Ezekiel Elliott for 6 games in 2017 stemming from allegations he got physical with an ex-girlfriend in 2016.

Ross Tucker@RossTuckerNFL
Chiefs making a huge statement with their statement & action.

This isn’t an aging RB coming off bad year. This is their best chance to go to Super Bowl in 50 years.

Doesn’t matter. He’s gone.

Robert Klemko@RobertKlemko
If the Washington football team claims Kareem Hunt off waivers the entire organization should be stuffed into a cannon and fired into the sun.

ProFootballTalk@ProFootballTalk
Chiefs aren’t messing around. Lie to us, and you’re done. Good for the Chiefs.

Chris Baker@cbakerswaggy
So if he told the truth then what???

mark schlereth@markschlereth
Good question

Anonymous Law Explainer@horsepire
Here’s a quick thread on Kareem Hunt. Full disclosure: I am a prosecutor, and also a Chiefs fan. I have many thoughts on the TMZ article and video that dropped this afternoon. First, I want to say that while domestic violence is a horrible thing, this isn’t domestic violence

Domestic violence is between family or household members. When we talk about DV, or use the word “abuse,” we’re talking about violence between people in close, intimate relationships. DV, or “abuse,” is treated very differently from a punch thrown in a bar-room brawl

There are many reasons for this. Most significantly, because DV occurs in a relationship, there are power dynamics present that don’t exist between strangers. You would report a stranger for throwing a punch; you might not report your spouse. Consequently, DV is under reported

DV creates what we call a “cycle of violence.” The abuser is violent. The victim doesn’t want to report. If/when he/she does, the abuser, through promises or threats, often coerces the victim to drop charges and come back to the abuser. The cycle begins again.

There are many examples of DV perpetrated by NFL players, most infamously Ray Rice. Ray Rice knocked his girlfriend out cold. Tyreek Hill, too, was involved in a very bad DV incident. Rice never played again; Hill is one of the NFL’s most popular players

We have to be careful about sensationalizing Hunt’s conduct as “violence against women.” That marginalizes DV and abuse. If the victim in this incident had been male, the optics would be completely different. But legally, there is no difference either way. This isn’t DV/abuse.

That doesn’t condone what Hunt did, at all. But if you mention this incident in the same sentence as Ray Rice, Reuben Foster, or even Adrian Peterson, you are making the problem worse, not better, because these things aren’t remotely the same.

On the other hand, it would be extremely naive to pretend that Kareem Hunt, like 99% of NFL players, isn’t a violent person. As his coach said, the NFL isn’t a tiddlywink contest. This isn’t DV/abuse, but that doesn’t mean Hunt isn’t violent.

This makes it all the more important to be precise in our reporting, our dialogue, and our understanding of exactly what is going on here. Does the NFL have a problem with DV/abuse? Yes. With violence generally? Yes. In this incident? Not especially.More

Finally, legally speaking, this is a misdemeanor, if charges were to be filed at all (and they weren’t in February, when it happened). No one was hurt. We don’t know what was being said, or what happened that wasn’t on the video. That is important.

Kareem Hunt should probably be suspended, maybe 2-3 games. He should be held accountable for his actions. But he should not be made a scapegoat for a very real problem which the NFL has continually failed to address, because this? This ain’t it.

Kareem Hunt was never arrested or charged for the February incident despite the woman telling police he attacked her and she wanted to press charges, and asking the officers to watch the video and see for themselves https://t.co/PvBGhbBwP5

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) December 1, 2018

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On Friday the Chiefs released the 2017 NFL rushing champion. The questions now are, did the NFL or the team see the video of Kareem Hunt's February altercation? And if not, why? @RobertKlemko’s column:https://t.co/1aiJm2iwvM

— The MMQB (@theMMQB) December 1, 2018

InvaderRam wrote:

zn wrote:

The claim was not that they did not know about it, it was that they could not obtain it.

true. but i don’t believe for a second that they could not obtain it.

Not legally they couldn’t. Regardless what one thinks, that’s actually credible.

This has led to the joke that maybe the NFL should just hire TMZ in advance on things like this.