The Kansas City Chiefs are in the midst of one of their best seasons in franchise history. The emergence of quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the main piece to the puzzle, but the team had flourished thanks to second-year running back Kareem Hunt.
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However, after shocking video was obtained by TMZ Sports that shows an incident back in February where Hunt shoved, attacked and kicked a young woman inside a Cleveland hotel, there's little doubt that the 2017 Pro Bowler can escape this without significant punishment that could end his professional career.
On February 10, 2018, when the incident initially took place during the offseason, law enforcement made no arrests and charges were never filed because police were unable to identify if a crime was committed at the time. Afterwards, Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt defended his star running back:
"The team's made up of a bunch of young men. They're not always going to make the best decisions, but we have a strong support system, both with the coaching staff and also with our player development department that works with young guys and talks to them about the situations that they want to be in.
"Kareem is a young man, second year in the league, obviously had a very big year on the field last year. I'm sure he learned some lessons this offseason and hopefully won't be in those kind of situations in the future." — KC-Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt, via The Kansas City Star
Well, Hunt's night was caught on surveillance video around 3:22 a.m. at The Metropolitan at the 9 hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. The video shows Hunt bull-rushing and brutally attacking the 19-year-old woman, identified as Kent State student Abigail Ottinger, while Hunt's friends try to hold him back.
WARNING: The following hotel video may be disturbing to watch.
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According to TMZ.com and police reports, the incident escalated into the hotel hallway after one of the woman's female friends refused to sleep with someone in Kareem's entourage, and then used racial slurs, including the n-word, towards the Kareem's male friends when they were kicked out of the hotel room.
Hunt, who led the league with 1,327 rushing yards during the 2017 NFL season, was a third-round pick by the Chiefs after playing college football for the Toledo Rockets.
This surveillance footage, shockingly reminiscent of former NFL star Ray Rice's incident back in 2014, will only put further stress on the National Football League and commissioner Roger Goodell to act immediately and curb the ongoing threat of domestic violence against women at the hands of NFL players.
For Chiefs RB Kareem Hunt to remain an active player in the NFL after this brutal video seems like a long shot at this point following this shocking physical altercation. In addition, the Chiefs now look complacent after downplaying this situation during the offseason, and the franchise will have a lot of pressure to release this obvious abuser immediately.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, the Kansas City Chiefs released Kareem Hunt. He went unclaimed on waivers and became an unrestricted free agent.
