NFL not interviewing Kareem Hunt is a disgrace
Kareem Hunt is the epicenter of NFL discussion right now, but did it have to be that way? The answer lies between the negative and affirmative.
On Friday, the video showing Kareem Hunt shoving and kicking a woman came to light. It was the first time the public say Hunt’s brutality. It was also the first time the NFL saw the video.
On Sunday, ESPN’s Lisa Salters conducted a live interview with Hunt on NFL Countdown. She asked Hunt directly if the league reached out to him. His answer was four words. “No they did not.”
The NFL not seeing the video is understandable. The NFL not reaching out to Hunt is a disgrace.
According to both reports and sources who spoke with FanSided, the league reached out to The Metropolitan at the 9, which was the hotel where Hunt was living in Cleveland during the incident. The hotel declined to give them the footage of Hunt and the 19-year-old woman fighting in the hallway.
It should be noted that the NFL has no legal rights to the footage. The hotel can withhold the videos unless required by law enforcement to submit them.
If the NFL was willing to make an unethical purchase of the film, it likely could have been arranged. Instead, the league didn’t want to pay for potentially incriminating evidence against one of its employees. Regardless of optics, that’s the right decision. Paying for the videos would have opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box for future issues, along with enraging the NFL Players Association.
However, not contacting Hunt about the incident that happened in February is appalling. Furthermore, the league office should be finding out why Hunt wasn’t met with for questioning, and then fire the persons responsible for such an egregious oversight. Reports say the NFL attempted to speak to the victim, but nothing came of that inquiry.
The NFL would have taken heat regardless of when Hunt’s wrongdoings came to light, but what happened Friday was a worst-case scenario for Roger Goodell and Co.
Hunt, one of the league’s biggest stars, was exposed in a horrific way. The league appears not to have cared enough to do even a moderate investigation, and the Chiefs are trying to recover in the midst of their quest for a Super Bowl.
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If the NFL talks to Hunt, maybe he lies to them the same way he told Salters that he lied to Kansas City. Certainly, the video still leaks out on Friday, but at least the NFL has the plausible deniability of saying it spoke at length with Hunt.
Instead, the NFL closed its eyes after requests for the video footage, hoping everything would go away.