Kareem Hunt

[Rupert Patrick]

First of all, after the Ray Rice situation that occurred in a hotel, you would think the NFL investigators would have thought to ask if there was video from the hotel hallway where the incident occurred as hotels have cameras in all public areas for security reasons. This really doesn't look good for the NFL security that this hitherto unknown video was released by TMZ almost ten months after the fact, and it forced the league (as it did with Rice) to have to re-suspend Hunt. In the Ray Rice incident, of course, the powers that be in the NFL had seen the video and suspended him based on the video, but once the video was released to the public and it was clear the suspension didn't fit the crime, it was necessary to suspend Rice again.

I think some heads are going to roll in the NFL offices as a result of this, and I think one of them may very well be Roger Goodell, as this is going to become a PR nightmare.

I feel bad for Hunt's teammates, that this incident has likely cost the team their best chance at a Lombardi Trophy in a generation or more, but if the NFL had done it's job, Hunt should have suspended for at least a good chunk of the 2018 season and the Chiefs could have come up with a replacement for him.

[conace21]

I understand that the NFL did reach out to the hotel for the video footage, and the hotel responded that it was their policy to only release it to law enforcement. The NFL also reached out to the Cleveland PD but were apparently rebuffed.
Now, it doesn't look good for the NFL, considering that TMZ was able to get the tape, but TMZ is ab
tabloid not above bribing people to illegally turn things over, with a certain amount of protection from the 1st Amendment.

[sluggermatt15]

This could be a positive moment for KC, despite losing a very talented player. Why? The team can rally around this. It's a moment of adversity. Spencer Ware also has an opportunity. He doesn't have a long history or very much success, but he did run for almost 1,000 yards in 2016 when he started 14 games. So, there is a bright side for KC on this.

[Rupert Patrick]

This could be a positive moment for KC, despite losing a very talented player. Why? The team can rally around this. It's a moment of adversity. Spencer Ware also has an opportunity. He doesn't have a long history or very much success, but he did run for almost 1,000 yards in 2016 when he started 14 games. So, there is a bright side for KC on this.

Hunt was (along with Mahomes) one of the two most important players on the team, and a lot of the game plan was designed around him. This also isn't like an injury situation where Hunt is still on the sidelines to motivate his teammates and his teammates can "win one for Kareem"; Hunt is gone and will never be a Chief again. Teammates do rally, but what will they rally around? This isn't a Mike Utley situation or something like Hunt broke his leg and will miss the rest of the season. There is no way they can rally around him for being kicked off the team or suspended by the league for no good reason as they've all seen the video and there is no defending his behavior in the video. Had Hunt died in a car accident yesterday, let's suppose, the team could certainly rally around that, but not this. All the team can do at this point is pick up the pieces and regroup as best as possible.

Ware seems a capable running back but not a game changer, not an electrifying player like Hunt was. Think about this - if the NFL had done their job and Hunt had been suspended (let's presume for the entire 2018 season, or even for the first 6-8 weeks of the season), perhaps they could have brought in Le'Veon Bell and they would have been good to go. Had Hunt been able to return for part of the season, a backfield of Bell and Hunt and Mahomes would have been unstoppable. But it is too late for that now. The way it worked out, a big hole was cut out of the center of the team with five weeks to go, and I don't think they'll be able to fill it.

I always look for the historical parallel to guide me, but I don't see one this time. The closest parallel I can think of is Ricky Williams retiring from football just before training camp in 2004, which turned a 10-6 team in to a 4-12 team overnight. I'd love to see the Chiefs turn this around, but I think they are no longer one of the 3-4 top teams in the NFL. They have slipped a notch.

The more I think about it, the more I think Roger Goodell is toast at the next owners meeting. With all the empty seats at stadiums, and the declining ratings, and this on top of the Rice incident, I think he'll be sacked.

[BD Sullivan]

The more I think about it, the more I think Roger Goodell is toast at the next owners meeting. With all the empty seats at stadiums, and the declining ratings, and this on top of the Rice incident, I think he'll be sacked.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/nfl-r ... -explosion

[lastcat3]

Just saw the footage of the incident......and...….wow......that woman could have been killed the way she was pushed against that wall. This is a tough situation because though the nfl wants their players to be model citizens at the same time they are getting the majority of their talent from people who grew up in very violent areas of the country.


I think the nfl needs to double down even more on educating its young players. Because violence is something that some of these players saw on a daily basis while growing up and there indeed are women out there that are out to take advantage of these guys. I'm not saying at all that this kind of thing is acceptable but at the same time with how the nfl gets players it is bound to happen every once in a while.


So educate.....educate.....and educate. Maybe the nfl even needs to set up programs to educate kids when they are really young regardless of rather they ever make it to the league or not. For some if they wait until they get into the league to start educating them it is already too late.

[lastcat3]

For most of us it seems pretty simple. Most of us know that no matter how much of a pain a woman may be it is never ok to hit them. But some/many of these guys in the nfl never were taught the life lessons that we were while growing up. And instead were taught that you need to 'fight' to make it in this world.

[lastcat3]

And yeah as far as the ratings and attendance goes the ratings are actually up this year. And also tv ratings are dropping across the board in all medias anyways due to all the different ways people have to watch programming now. Unless the nfl stops being #1 then I don't see the ratings being that big of a deal. Trump just likes to tweet about it in order to rile up his base.

[Rupert Patrick]

I worry that some of it is due to what I classified years ago as the OJ syndrome. I first came up with this while watching the OJ trial where his entire life story unfolded, and I am treading into thin ice here. What I am saying is that for many of these young athletes who come from nothing (from many different sports), as soon as it was realized in high school that they could run well with a football or play basketball well, they were suddenly provided with many things with no strings attached, such as a free college education and in some cases having other people taking exams in their behalf, having teachers pressured to pass them in classes because "we really need him on the team," free cars and women for themselves and money for their families in order to attend certain colleges (this one is going thru the court system as we speak, but it's probably been going on a lot and somebody finally got caught).

Anyway, whenever these young men get to the pros, they suddenly have an unlimited supply of money, beyond their wildest dreams, and many of them do a poor job in managing it (I recommend the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary "Broke" if you haven't seen it), but it buys them everything, until somebody says "No." Once they hear the word "No", which is a word they haven't heard in years, they don't know how to deal with it. Kareem Hunt reached that point in the hotel in February.

Which brings us back to OJ. Once he proved he could run fast with a football, he ran all the way to USC and then to Buffalo, and got everything he ever wanted. When Nicole told him "No", he hadn't heard that word in a couple decades, and he went berserk.

I recently went back and re-watched that excellent 90's documentary "Hoop Dreams" with the two young Chicago teens who were very good basketball players and were trying to use their talent to get out of the ghettos. There was a scene where one of the two kids (or maybe both of them) received brand new official NBA jackets (which cost well over 100 bucks) courtesy of the local drug dealer. These kids kept their noses clean and weren't involved in drugs, but the drug dealer bought these for the kids because in the off chance either of these kids made it to the NBA (and both of them were amongst the top high school basketball players in Chicago), they were going to owe him.

I'm not being racist, as I grew up lower middle class and was in poverty for a couple years growing up myself, but I believe if you grow up with nothing, and suddenly are given everything, you can reach a point where you can snap when you are told there is something your money or all the money in the world cannot buy.

[sluggermatt15]

@Rupert Patrick - I think James Conner replacing Le'Veon Bell is an example of giving a guy an opportunity, they can take advantage of it. So why not think Ware can fill in for Hunt? Ware will be more involved in the gameplan, he'll get the practice reps, and his teammates will have to confide in him. So I don't think this quashes KC's hopes of homefield or even a run in the playoffs. They still have a dangerous offense, an experienced coach, and a defense who is capable of making plays, especially if Eric Berry returns.