Kareem Hunt admitted he was “in the wrong” during an incident in which he shoved and kicked a woman in the hallway at his Cleveland residence.
“It was just a long night,” Hunt told ESPN’s Lisa Salters of what happened in February. “To be exact, it don’t really matter what happened. I was in the wrong. I could have took responsibility and made the right decision to find a way to descalate the situation.”
Hunt apologized to the woman in the video, the Chiefs organization and his family.
Hunt said if he got the chance to speak to the woman in the video again he would say, “I am sorry for my actions that night.”
The Kansas City Chiefs announced they were cutting ties with Hunt on Friday, after the video of the incident was published by TMZ. In the video, Hunt and the woman trade words in a hallway and are separated by several people on multiple occasions. Hunt pushes the woman, who responds by hitting him in the face. Two men escort Hunt down a hallway before he charges out, colliding with a man who then knocks the woman over. Hunt also kicks the woman in the leg.
The Chiefs said Hunt was not truthful in his discussions with the team about what happened, leading to the decision to move on from him.
Hunt confirmed that.
“I didn’t tell them everything,” Hunt said. “I don’t blame them for anything. My actions caused this.”
After the video was released and shortly before the Chiefs’ announcement, Hunt was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list by the NFL.
“The Chiefs did what was right,” Hunt said.
Hunt said the NFL never questioned him about the incident or asked him to talk about it.
Sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen that the NFL did not interview the woman in its investigation of the incident.
The league did reach out to the woman and her friend on multiple occasions but they did not respond, officials said.
ESPN attempted to reach out to the woman for comment but was unsuccessful.
The situation has drawn comparisons to Ray Rice’s February 2014 punch of his then-fiancee. Rice never played in the NFL again after video of the assault was released by TMZ.
For his part, Rice told NFL Network on Saturday that we would be willing to speak with Hunt to discuss what happened and how to move forward.
“Peer-to-peer, I would definitely try to help him figure out, ‘How can we start dealing with the underlying problems in your life?'” Rice said. “Because he has a long life to live, this will be a defining moment, but it shouldn’t be the moment that defines you. For me, I just see you have a long life to live and that doesn’t mean just playing football. You need to just live one day at a time.”
Hunt said he hopes to get another chance in the NFL but that he doesn’t know if it will happen.
“I’ve worked for this my whole entire life,” he told Salters. “I gave everything and sacrificed so much for this. … I’ll do whatever I can to help win.
“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.”