Andy Reid Makes The Hunt Situation Clear
Well that Kareem Hunt stuff all went down surprisingly fast.
One day there we are, all happy for the Chiefs, all excited to see what this team could do, and then BAM! Scumbag. 7 hours later, as we are all reeling from the hits, Kareem Hunt becomes Kareem Hunting for a job. No one claimed him on waivers (I’m sure the Skins wanted to though) and now we find out he was also involved in another altercation. Add him to the scumbag list!
I didn’t get a chance to watch the video till after he was already cut so I’ll admit that I expected worse considering what everyone was saying. KAREEM HUNT BRUTALIZES WOMAN. It wasn’t good but the crime was a weird lunge that sorta hit her and a weak tantrum kick. Didn’t feel close to Ray Rice. It also wasn’t domestic violence, it is just plain assault. He wasn’t involved with the woman. Honestly, before the rest of his altercations came out, I thought the outrage was a smidge overblown. With everything else that has come to light, I’m fine with calling him a shit.
A lot of people, myself included, seemed stunned to see Hunt cut so fast. The video seemed suspension worthy to me, not quite cut worthy. Hunt didn’t have previous issues off the field. It especially seemed kinda weird to see the Chiefs take a strong moral stance while Tyreek Hill still enjoys nothing but leniency. But the more that comes out, the more it appears to be because Hunt lied to the Chiefs and hid his actions, and since the league never got hold of the tape till now they got scared and did the right thing. I’m sure the NFL will still fuck this up somehow. They never met a situation like this they couldn’t get wrong.
Full do realize there is another video and two other instances. On top of that the Chiefs dealt similar with Larry Johnson (bind site) no internet but they also had that player (too lazy to look up right now) that killed his pregnant gf and then killed himself in the Chiefs practice parking lot.
That being said the inticial video nothing compared to Ray Rice. Even the kick was not a kick but more a demeaning push.
Never thought he would be cut but a part of me thought the Redskins would sign him to quiet the Rueben foster signing. Can’t look any worse
Jovan Belcher.
What makes the kick bad isn’t how hard he kicked her, but that he had to fight free of his friend and shove another person out of the way in order to get to her so he could kick her while she was down. It was a really weak kick, but he pretty clearly had malice behind it even if he couldn’t deliver.
By all accounts, Hunt has been cut not just for this (which the Chiefs knew about but were assured by Hunt that it wasnt that serious) and for previous behavioural problems (a fight in a restaurant, and a parking lot I think). Either way, the scouting reports on him allegedly said he had anger issues in college, and whilst its clear they’ve been able to control that to a degree and focus it on the field, when you have a hand grenade and you keep bouncing it off things, at some point its going to explode.
Awaiting a 10 game ban, a Jerry Jones tirade (this is worse than Zeke and his was only alleged yadda yadda) and him being picked up by the Redskins or Jets next season and playing after week 6.
PS : I wasnt actually aware of the Tyreek Hill thing, but in a conversation last night following Urban Meyer’s announcement of his “retirement”, we accepted that College Headcoaches have a win at all costs mentality which foster this kind of thing being almost acceptable whilst theyre in High School/College, so its to be expected that the attitude follows through once they start their professional careers.
I think this might have been funnier if Walrus Reid was devouring the reporter guy in the last panel while saying ‘Any OTHER questions relevant to the topic at hand?’ and the rest of the press were just like, ‘ehh, nope, we’re good, Coach.’
Anyway, this has been so surprising. In just a week, Hunt has turned from one of the Chiefs’ promising stars into a full-blown national pariah. He’s lost everything. I imagined the league would just dole out a slap on the wrist and that he’ll just serve some silly ‘suspended until the end of the season, come back when the playoffs start’ punishment, but whoa. Cut, gone through waivers, on Roger Badell’s exempt list. Didn’t expect it.
It’s been a while and I wasn’t pay a lot of attention at the time so I didn’t witness the effects first-hand, but the public outrage hasn’t been this bad over Ray Rice when that damning elevator video was released, has it? Not the anger over the league’s lenient punishments and the Ravens covering for him or such, I mean general outrage toward Rice himself. Hunt’s got articles and pictures plastered over every tabloid I could find with a few clicks, normally sports-related ones or not. Was it this bad around the time Rice’s case blew up?
I think it was this bad, and actually worse, honestly. I mean, there’s a reason that the league pulled double jeopardy and changed it from a two-game ban to a year-long ban as soon as the news broke. The Rice story was pretty explosive, even if it’s not as easy to remember how big it was due to the passage of time. The NFL handling it poorly was indicted by the general public, so that may have taken up a fair share of the outrage thrown out, but Rice was considered a pretty big villain.
Here, I get the sense that the outrage directed to the NFL is a lot lower because the NFL actually handled this correctly (weird as it sounds); the hotel owner refused to give them the video, law enforcement didn’t demand it (which does not say good things about the Cleveland PD), the woman who gets hit and kicked recanted and then went back on her recantation, and the only reason that the video came out is probably because TMZ slipped somebody some money to leak them the video (which the NFL can’t do because “NFL slips people money for a video” isn’t going to reflect well on them). So as soon as it came out, the NFL had evidence to punish, and the Chiefs did a decent job of handling it even if you assume that Hunt was only cut for lying to them when they questioned him about what happened.
As for Tyreek Hill, I want to ask: has he been in any trouble since college? It’s possible that he learned his lesson, was able to convince the Chiefs that he learned his lesson, and that he’s no longer a domestic abuser (which, honestly, would be the best possible outcome). It’s also possible that he just learned not to hit his girlfriend in public and is still a scumbag.
For Tyreek Hill, he hasn’t been in any trouble. And from what I read, he’s actually engaged to the girlfriend he assaulted, a la Ray Rice.
After watching the video and reading that the woman involved wasn’t his partner, I didn’t really understand all the fury surrounding this one to be honest. Hunt screwed up and is being punished for it – thats what happens when you screw up especially in such a major way and I have no sympathy for him now. But I dont hold any real ill will towards him. Sounds like hes got anger issues and probably a problem with alcohol. I think in the context of Rice/Elliot/Others NFL as soon as it was violent and a woman involved everything blew up, but the situation itself wasn’t really egregious.
im still waiting for your thoughts on the saints/dallas game.
Why? Nothing terribly comic worthy there. The Saints probably went in overconfident, the Cowboys defense played lights out and Brees had a bad game. Games like that happen every week.
As a Dallas fan all I wanted was some acknowledgment, now that I’ve gotten it I’ll go about my business. Cheers
Dave, did you do a comic about when the Giants kicker managed to get soft soaped by the team and the league following a Domestic abuse conviction for a few weeks before similar moral outrage forced them to finally cut his sorry ass?
Ahh yes you did , #578
Walrus Reid seems to always be portrayed as somewhat goofy. What if……he was playing us this whole time. What if….he is the NFL’s version of Keyser Söze.
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing you that he wasn’t going to go one and done in the playoffs this year.
I’ve seen multiple columns taking the NFL to task for not being as good at finding videos of this and other incidents as TMZ is. What? Finding videos of celebrities engaging in bad behavior is the entirety of TMZ’s reason for being. And, as such, they are GOOD at it. It is fair to take the league to task for its uneven responses and apparent attempts to cover-up (those never happen, right?), but expecting them to be better at digging for dirt as an organization whose existence depends on digging for dirt? Please.
There’s also the fact that TMZ doesn’t need to be able to use the videos as evidence in court or arbitration. The NFL has to stick to official channels or anything it obtains could get excluded if it takes action against a player and the player appeals to an outside reviewer.
Okay, this was bad. He deserves a suspension for sure, and lying to the team is enough to warrant a cut. But this was in no way worse than Elliot or Josh Brown, and they got away with a lot less punishment. Hunt just sorta kinda pushed her and kicked her. It was bad, but if he assaulted a man, no way he got more than 2 games. It’s just our country’s natural “women are weak and need to be protected” sexism at work again.
But still, what Elliot did was worse. If only there was a video of that.
All this talk of this not measuring up to previous suspensions kinda misses the point. Previous suspensions have been dogshit in this league. They’re usually a slap in the wrist that gets everyone frothy for the league not giving a damn.
You can’t try to take things more seriously while also following precedent.
I agree. He deserves what he’s getting. I’m just saying that if this isn’t the precedent going forward, I’m going to have issues with it.
I’ll buy a plush Andy Reid walrus. T shirt will work too.
It won’t be long before a team went hunting for him, money on the Raiders.
Chiefs fan here to say that Hill has been nothing short of an angel since he signed with us. He served probation and underwent a year of anger management classes before signing up, and it seems like he’s genuinely turned over a new leaf. He’s spent a lot of time doing talks about his incident, donating to domestic violence shelters, and been a very positive figure in the community. He reminds me of the domestic violence version of Michael Vick. Honestly, choking and punching your pregnant girlfriend is probably below the line of things you should forgive a person for, but I also feel like he deserves it.
Meanwhile, Hunt just happened to run into his issues during his professional life, and that’s basically the major difference. He has lashed out too late to get the help he needs to continue on in his career. I wonder if he had admitted what happened to the Chiefs back in February, if he would still be with the team now. At least then, they’d be somewhat aware of what kind of PR backlash awaited them in the future and could limit the damages early.
“It also wasn’t domestic violence, it is just plain assault.”
Thank you. It’s the only thing I take issue with regarding all this. Outside of that, pretty much agreeing with everyone.
Everyone seems to hit Hill as the low hanging fruit, but the guy is rehabilitated. He’s gone through counseling, done a ton of charity work, he made amends, and is even engaged to the woman he attacked. Chiefs have a very clear policy. You have a problem, and want to fix it, they will help you, but you gotta man up, accept responsibility and take the steps to fix it. Otherwise, they will kick you to the curb, no matter who you are.
Weirdly enough, there were articles acting like the Chief dragged their feet on this. One article highlighted the fact that he was cut 5hrs after the news broke, and asked why it took them so long. LOL.
They way people were talking about it, I thought the video was going to be something out of Faces of Death. Hunt is an idiot for putting himself in that situation. Ruined a good thing for what? A chance to play footsies with a woman who had some annoying choice words? Honestly. How many times does this have to happen for NFL players to realize they have nothing to gain and everything to lose?
Lol.
Skin-colored Andy Reid Walrus is kind of unsettling.
You’ve been doing this comic for years and Andy Reid is still a walrus.
And I laugh hysterically every time. Never change, Dave.