Here’s hoping Kareem Hunt’s ‘personal’ quip doesn’t mean he’s in denial about behavior
Shortly after the Cleveland Browns on Sunday beat Pittsburgh for their first playoff victory since Jan. 1, 1995, running back Kareem Hunt celebrated in style befitting a millennial born months after that date: He took to his cellphone and paraded around the locker room to share the scene on Instagram Live.
Engulfed in the euphoria of the moment, he took an apparent jab at Pittsburgh’s JuJu Smith-Schuster for dismissive pre-game remarks that these were the same old Browns.
Then he simultaneously transported himself back to the past and a week ahead to Kansas City, where Hunt and the Browns will take on his former team in an AFC Divisional playoff game on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.
“Next week personal,” he said, repeating it for emphasis. “Next week personal. Let’s go.”
In one sense, this was innocent fun and possibly just shrug-worthy. Even if it conceivably might have made for additional motivational fodder for the Chiefs, there was nothing nasty or even edgy in his tone. Any player who was cast away by any team surely is hyper-conscious of that history, perhaps particularly so in the first encounter since. And all the more so in the crucible of the playoffs.
Along those lines, Patrick Mahomes said at the Super Bowl that he’d kept up with Hunt and tweeted about him as he was rushing for two first-quarter touchdowns in the 48-37 Wild-Card round victory.
“That man @kareemhunt7 is so nice,” Mahomes wrote, punctuated by a flexing bicep emoji.
For all that, though, there also was something curious and even borderline distressing about the way Hunt put it.
Because one valid interpretation of the implication of calling this “personal” the way he did was to suggest that the Chiefs somehow had done him wrong.
Which calls into question just what he learned from what happened and makes you wonder if he’s forgotten that he’s fortunate to still even be in the NFL.
At worst, the lingering suggestion that he was somehow victimized leaves to question the sincerity of his stated contrition and remorse over why the Chiefs jettisoned him.
At best, blaming the Chiefs would be revisionist history for someone who effectively abandoned, and arguably even betrayed, them — by lying about the appalling actions that led to the Chiefs abruptly terminating him in November 2018 after video emerged of Hunt shoving and kicking a woman in February.
Let’s remember how it was put then by the Chiefs, at the time seeking their first Super Bowl in nearly half a century and all the more equipped with the budding superstar running back they could have used in the AFC Championship loss to the Patriots:
“Earlier this year, we were made aware of an incident involving running back Kareem Hunt,” they said in a statement. “At that time, the National Football League and law enforcement initiated investigations into the issue. As part of our internal discussions with Kareem, several members of our management team spoke directly to him. Kareem was not truthful in those discussions. The video released today confirms that fact. We are releasing Kareem immediately.”
With his NFL future in the balance, Hunt sought out ESPN for an interview the following month and said, “That’s not me. That’s not the person I am. It’s out there. It happened. I’m very embarrassed about it. I’m ashamed of myself.”
With that spirit conveyed thusly and otherwise, Hunt got new NFL life by signing with the Browns in February 2019. He served an NFL-dictated eight-game suspension before rushing for 464 yards that season. Largely in a complementary/reserve role behind Nick Chubb, Hunt rushed for 841 yards and had 38 catches for 304 yards during the 2020 regular season.
For his part, Chiefs coach Andy Reid indicated on Monday that he understood why Hunt might call this personal.
“Listen, I get all that,” Reid said. “But most of all I’m happy for him that things are going in the right direction for him.”
Evidently. But it hasn’t been seamless for Hunt, either: During a traffic stop in January 2020, according to a police report cited by ESPN, Hunt acknowledged to police that he would have failed a drug test for marijuana. He ended up being penalized only for speeding, but the Browns front office, including owner Jimmy Haslam, called the episode unacceptable.
According to the report, Hunt told the officer it was the offseason and “sorry, I was having a good time.” But dashcam video seemed to reveal something else: Hunt’s ongoing fixation and lament of what he’d lost with his former team, which had just beaten Tennessee to advance to the Super Bowl.
“Should be playing for a freaking Super Bowl, man,” he said. “It hurts my soul. You don’t even understand. I’ve been fighting a lot of (expletive) lately. It still hurts me to this day. I love Cleveland, I love the Browns, but you don’t understand.”
So here’s hoping his “personal” point simply reflects this:
Hunt embraced the treatment and counseling apparently mandated by the NFL and truly regrets what he did to compel the Chiefs to shed him. And now he just wants to perform well against them in what he might feel is a redemptive opportunity.
If you believe in the grace and potential of fresh starts and second chances, on many levels that view is far preferable to assuming he’s in denial.
Trouble is that what he really thinks is, well, personal … so much so that maybe only he knows the true answer.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM.