Kareem Hunt and the Hypocrisy of the NFL

Kareem Hunt was released by the Kansas City Chiefs for a video that surfaced last week showing him shoving and eventually kicking a woman at his home in Cleveland last February. The team has known about this incident since shortly after it happened and yet it took TMZ releasing the video for them to release the star RB last week. Ever since the Ray Rice incident a couple of years ago, the NFL has been under the proverbial microscope regarding domestic violence, and on the outside, they have promised to be more vigilant in its stance against it, but this most recent issue has proven to me, that the really don’t give TWO SHITS about domestic violence unless it is brought to light and broadcast by the media.

Not only did the NFL not reach out to Cleveland authorities to see if there was a video tape, they also did not talk to any witnesses or ask authorities to provide a report of the incident so that they could review what took place and find out if there was any wrongdoing by one of its players. Now, replace that last statement, inserting the Kansas City Chiefs in the place of the NFL and you can see exactly how serious the league and the teams under the NFL logo are taking the issue seriously. The more incidents like this come to light, the more I realize that the NFL doesn’t care, they are only concerned with their bottom line and when their stars get into a situation they should not be in, they keep it hidden until some hack media outlet like TMZ finds a video and broadcasts it to the world, and it is only then that they take action. This festered for for NINE months before the video was finally released and the response from the league was that although they had known about it they did not know there was a video.

I call Bullshit!! They knew, they have always known, but they decided Kareem Hunt was too big of a star (he was the NFL rushing leader in 2017) to allow this incident to detract from the money they could make off his name. That is, until the media backlash was so strong they had to take action. First the Chiefs by releasing him, then the NFL by putting him on the exempt list. Don’t fool yourselves folks, the league is very good at protecting its star players until some rouge entity throws a wrench in the works and decides that right is right and they call the NFL on their hypocrisy. Until the NFL practices what it preaches, it can never be trusted to honor its “public” commitment to focusing on combating domestic violence amongst its employees.

There is a track record and a history on this issue that the NFL has failed time and time again, and until Roger Goodell steps up to the mic to say that the NFL will have a “no exceptions” clause on the subject of domestic violence, there will continue to be other star players who will get a pass for their actions and face no repercussions unless the tape becomes public of what they did. I firmly believe this is true, and to prove my point, what do you think would happen to Tom Brady if a tape was released of him beating up Giselle, or if Aaron Rogers was shown to have beat up Danika Patrick (personally I think Danika would beat his ass). What then would happen if the biggest stars in the league had their actions exposed for the world to see?

I am going to end this on a positive note. The great Amy Trask, former Chief executive of the Oakland Raiders from 1997 – 2013, who is currently a co-host of the CBS Sunday pregame show on CBS Sports Network, That Other Pregame Show (TOPS) Sunday’s at 8am Eastern, stated that despite all of the ugliness we have seen there are still tremendous men in the NFL. Men who stand up against domestic violence, do positive things in their communities, whether it be with the sick, the poor or just being a strong influence on kids, they provide the example of how men should behave in life and I would be remiss in not mentioning them. I have great respect for those players that choose to be an example to others and fortunately for the NFL the number of players that set this example greatly outweigh those that don’t. Kudos to them and Kudos to Mrs. Trask for pointing them out. If Amy ever wanted to be Commissioner of the NFL, I would be first in line to give her my vote (if I had one).

Finally, my heart goes out to the victims who don’t have a voice. I urge any and all that have experienced domestic violence from any NFL player, or for that matter, from ANY professional athlete and has been silenced by a professional sports team or league, speak up, find the nearest camera, and tell your story. I’m listening…

Have a good night…