Clark Hunt said the team was "shocked" by the video of Kareem Hunt that was releasedGETTY IMAGES
Chiefs Chair & CEO Clark Hunt said that the team's decision to release Kareem Hunt was in the "best interests of the franchise and the running back," according to Austin Knoblauch of NFL.com. Clark Hunt said the release was a "collective decision." He said, "We were obviously shocked by the video, I think like anybody who saw it, and we had some issues with Kareem not being truthful about what had happened that night. We just really felt for everybody's best interest, we needed to head in a different direction" (NFL.com, 12/9). Hunt said that the Chiefs were "aware of Kareem Hunt's three violent episodes in a six-month span before his release." He said in his first public comments since releasing Kareem Hunt, "We were familiar with all three of the incidents that he had had in the offseason. They'd all been reported to the NFL, and the NFL was investigating them" (K.C. STAR, 12/10).
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: In K.C., Vahe Gregorian notes nine days after Kareem Hunt was waived with a "robotic statement" by the Chiefs, Clark Hunt "finally was made available to the media." But something "was missing from his messages -- an expression of concern for the actual victim instead of for Kareem Hunt." Gregorian: "I'm certain that Clark Hunt has compassion for Kareem hunt's victim and deplores what he saw and detests violence against women. So why is it so hard to say that directly? Are the Chiefs so lawyered up that they can't just make an important statement of the obvious?" The Chiefs can "be better in being more open and clear in their leadership" (K.C. STAR, 12/10).
