Roger Goodell spoke to the media on a number of topics this week, and he updated everyone on the state of current investigations into Kareem Hunt and Reuben Foster.
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell stated the ongoing investigation into former Kansas City Chiefs running back was moving along fairly well on Wednesday when he updated media on the current status of things for both Hunt and Washington Redskins linebacker Reuben Foster.
Hunt was released by the Chiefs in early December when TMZ Sports obtained and released a video that showed more clearly his involvement in an assault complaint stemming from last February. At the time, Hunt had filed a cross-complaint against the victim stating he was the one who was assaulted, and no charges were ever filed against either party by police officers at the scene.
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Given the lack of charges, the drama of Hunt’s offseason faded into the background and the Chiefs employed him as their star back through the majority of the regular season until the video appeared. At that point, the Chiefs released Hunt saying that the player had lied to the franchise at various points about his involvement—a fact verified by Hunt himself who admitted the team was right to release him.
Hunt has been awaiting further discipline from the league ever since that moment, and to date, he’s already sat out five regular season games plus any postseason games he would have been a part of (two for the Chiefs given their loss in the AFC Conference Championship game against the New England Patriots. It’s unclear whether or not Hunt will get any credit toward a potential suspension for the postseason dates missed, but it’s a good bet that he will at least be credited with five regular season games.
Goodell did not say what discipline would look like against Hunt at this point, but he did say the investigation was coming along and cited a “tremendous amount of progress” on the matter.
"He is a free agent. If he is signed by a club, I think all clubs understand he’ll go on the commissioner exempt list at that point in time until the discipline process has concluded. Whether there’s discipline or not discipline, we would finish the investigation and then make a determination. That hopefully will happen soon, but we haven’t concluded the investigation and we’re working to do that. There has been a tremendous amount of progress, though, in that investigation over the last, I’d say, 30 to 60 days."
Hunt has reportedly been seeking plenty of help while away from the game. If Hunt is levied a suspension of any length longer than five games, it will mean he will likely have to sit that extra amount early in the 2019 season for any team he signs with as a free agent this spring or summer.