Kareem Hunt was released by the Kansas City Chiefs after footage of him assaulting a woman in a hotel lobby this February surfaced online, but now it's been reported that the NFL failed to ever interview the running back. Hunt confirmed this during a Sunday morning interview with ESPN's Lisa Salters.
Hunt spent the majority of the interview trying to show remorse for his actions. "I was raised by my mom and my grandma," he explained. "It was just us, and they’ve always taught me well. I know right from wrong.
"That person in that video did not deserve that," he said about the victim. "I didn't mean to hurt anybody or anything like that." He also believes that the Chiefs made the right move in releasing him.
Hunt also said that the severity of what happened didn't occur to him until much later: "I realized what I did once I saw the video." He didn't have much to say when Salters pressed him specifically about kicking the woman, who he claimed he never met before that night. "You can't really explain it," he responded. "The video shows that I was in the wrong." His first time viewing the footage was when "everybody else saw the video."
ESPN's Adam Schefter first broke the news that the NFL failed to interview Hunt and the woman he assaulted. "Hunt spoke to the Chiefs about the incident," he wrote on Twitter. "The league spoke to the Chiefs about the incident, but after reviewing the police report and talking to the player, everybody decided to do nothing."
Action was only taken when the footage surfaced online, recalling the Ray Rice assault situation where he punched his wife in a hotel elevator. The NFL received criticism for how they handled the situation, especially when it was reported that commissioner Roger Goodell and the league had already seen the footage before it made its way online.
