Kareem Hunt, last season’s leading rusher in the NFL, broke his silence Sunday about being cut from the Kansas City Chiefs. He told ESPN that he regrets kicking a woman after an argument turned violent and that he is “very embarrassed about it.”
“I regret the entire thing, everything,” Hunt said in the video interview. “I’m going to take the time to better myself, learn from this, get some help if needed, talk to people and really just take this really serious.”
Hunt said that league officials never interviewed him about the incident but he acknowledged that he lied to the Kansas City Chiefs about his involvement.
“They believed that I lied to them. I lied to them,” Hunt told ESPN. “They pretty much said we love you, everybody cares about you, and just we have to let you go. It was a tough conversation. And the Chiefs did what was right. I made a poor decision and I’m willing to take full responsibility.”
On Friday, the Kansas City Chiefs announced they were cutting Hunt after video of the assault was published by TMZ. The video shows Hunt arguing with a woman, which escalates and several men try to intervene and hold him back. He pushed one of the men and then knocked the woman to the ground and kicked her while she was down.
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Many compare the video footage to that of former Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was also captured on video punching his then-fiancée in an elevator.
When ESPN asked Hunt whether the NFL spoke directly to him about it, he replied: “No, they have not,” in which ESPN confirmed was the truth. Still, Hunt said he only faulted himself.
“That’s not an excuse,” he said. “I’m not that person in that video.”