Within two days after TMZ published a video showing Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt shoving and kicking a woman in a Cleveland hotel in February, it already is becoming clear that the NFL failed to adequately investigate the incident—reportedly by not speaking to Hunt, not speaking to the woman in question, and telling the Chiefs to stop pursuing the video from the hotel.
According to ESPN, the NFL never spoke to Kareem Hunt or the woman involved.
The league said it spoke to as many witnesses who were there as possible and that they said Hunt was not involved, which the video that TMZ released Friday clearly contradicts. The NFL believes it did everything possible from a legal standpoint. The league could not subpoena the hotel or police for the video. [...] Yet after the league reviewed the police report and spoke to the Chiefs following their discussions with Hunt, no action was taken, leading up to the video that was released Friday. And so the NFL’s investigation of Hunt did not include any interviews with Hunt or the woman who was pushed, shoved and kicked.
NFL Network reported that the league asked the hotel for the video, but the hotel would only turn it over to law enforcement. The report said that the Cleveland police said they never obtained the video either:
According to sergeant and public information officer Jennifer Ciaccia of the Cleveland Police Department, she doesn’t believe anyone with the department saw the video, either. Officers filed two police reports, but the video was not part of the investigation file.
It was a misdemeanor case, she said, and detectives don’t follow up as they do with felonies. In other words, detectives didn’t go back for the video. They referred victims to the city prosecutor to file charges.
The Chiefs—who sent Hunt home from the team facility after the video was published on Friday, then later called to tell him they were releasing him from the team—said, according to The Athletic, that the NFL told them to stop pursuing the video of the February incident. The report said:
The Chiefs, according to multiple league sources, knew video evidence of the altercation existed, but they were told by the NFL to stop pursuing it later in February once the league began its investigation.
The Athletic reported that the Chiefs did speak to Hunt about the incident after it was first reported in February, and Hunt told them he had never left the hotel room. He was cut from the team for being “not truthful.”
As a private business, the hotel had no obligation to turn surveillance video over to the NFL, another private business. The NFL has repeatedly tried to position itself as the arbiter of justice in cases like this one, though, so it’s incongruous that the league didn’t see the need to at least speak to Hunt or the woman who said he assaulted her.
Update (1:49 p.m. ET): The NFL issues a statement that does not contradict the reports on its Kareem Hunt investigation.
The NFL’s investigation began immediately following the incident in February. Consistent with standard investigatory practices, the NFL continues to pursue a complete understanding of the facts. The NFL’s ongoing investigation will include further attempts to speak to the complainants involved in the incident. It will include a review of the new information that was made public on Friday – which was not available to the NFL previously – as well as further conversations with all parties involved in the incident.