Eventually-former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt knew that he shoved and kicked a woman at a Cleveland hotel in February. But no one else knew, so he didn’t apologize. Now that everyone knows, he’s apologizing.
“I want to apologize for my actions,” Hunt said in a statement issued on Friday night. “I deeply regret what I did. I hope to move on from this.”
He deeply regrets that the truth came out. Otherwise, he would have apologized long ago. And he will move on from this; the question is whether another NFL team will give him a landing spot.
Following the firestorm that emerged after Washington claimed former 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster on waivers, chances are Hunt will go unclaimed. Which will make him a free agent, a status he’ll retain until the NFL concludes its internal investigation and dispenses punishment.
Hunt likely will be cleared to play at some point in 2019. The question then becomes whether a team will sign him for the offseason, training camp, and preseason, or whether a team will wait until after his suspension has been served.
Don’t assume he’ll be ostracized. Ray Rice never got back in primarily because he was widely believed to be washed up. Hunt has skills, and those skills will get him a second chance. Possibly in a place like Philadelphia, where former Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson coaches the team, and where owner Jeffrey Lurie once gave Mike Vick a second chance after he admitted to dogfighting and to killing dogs deemed unfit to fight.