Kareem Hunt gets Kicked Back

Star Kansas City Chiefs’ running back, Kareem Hunt was released by the team on Saturday, December 1^st. The cut followed a hotel video that came from TMZ showing domestic assault of women by Kareem. The video shows Kareem pushing, punching and kicking a women who he was having a prior argument 8 months ago.

Kareem Hunt was having a great season so far with the Chiefs and a key weapon in their offense. He had 824 rushing yards on 181 attempts with seven rushing touchdowns. Hunt also had 378 yards on 26 catches with seven receiving touchdowns. Last season was Hunt’s rookie season, which he racked up 1,327 rushing yards on 272 attempts with eight rushing touchdowns. He was also able to get 455 receiving yards on 53 receptions and 3 touchdowns last season.

Kareem was obviously having a great season but the Chiefs did not want to deal with the controversy of keeping

Hunt so he was released Saturday December 1st, the day before they played the Oakland Raiders. On Monday, Kareem was allowed to be on the waiver wire and has still not been signed by any teams yet. At the time of writing this, the NFL has not formally punished Hunt but it is expected he will receive a heavy penalty of suspension.

Cheifs’ Quarterback Patrick Mahomes commented this on the scenario “The Chiefs cut Kareem Hunt, but what about Tyreek Hill?” Cheifs’ wide receiver Tyreek Hill was arrested on charges of domestic abuse by strangulation in 2014. He later pleaded guilty of punching his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach but was drafted by the Chiefs.  The big distinction between the 2 situations was that they have no video evidence of what Hill did compared to what Hunt did. This should not have made a difference because Hill still did a terrible crime but it did have a different end result.

Similar situations in the past give us an idea of what Hunt’s future may be. Going back to Ray Rice case is probably what will happen to Hunt. Ray Rice was only given a 2 game suspension initially when he was arrested for hitting his fiancée in an elevator. When the video of Rice hitting his fiancée came out, the NFL permanently suspended Rice from the league and never played football in the NFL again.

After the Ray Rice case, the NFL cracked down on the domestic abuse policy and have a zero tolerance approach. The NFL however does not have a set code and guidelines for exactly how they should react in this scenario. Reuben Foster was signed off of waivers by the Redskins 2 days after he was arrested for domestic violence. This shows the NFL in theory wants to have a strict policy with domestic abuse and violence but in reality, they have a varying level of punishment for those players.

Overall, most NFL fans and spectators have a strong opinion on the Kareem Hunt domestic violence video. 12^th grader at Lafayette High School Eric Cox had this to say about Kareem, “I have no sympathy for Kareem. If you beat a woman, you deserve to lose your job. The NFL does not condone it, it is very sad that the NFL took this long to react.”  Lafayette Ledger reporter Aaron Adam said “Anyone who beats a woman should not play in the NFL but the way that the NFL reacted by banning him from attending any practices or games even if he is not playing was wrong. They made a rash decision too quickly about the scenario and might end up regretting it in the future. 12^th grader at Warhill High School student Jared Barrett said “This act from Kareem was disgusting, any punishment  Kareem gets is 100% deserved.”

The future does not look bright for the 23 year old. The woman he hit has not pressed charges yet but is likely to do so in the upcoming month. Now for Kareem’s football career, he will not play in the 2018-2019 season again and most likely won’t play in the next season either. Based on his talent, there is still a chance Kareem will be signed by a team in a few years when whole scenario dies down. If we look at Collin Kapernick who has controversy surrounding him, no team has signed him since which is surprising because of his skill.