IRVING, Texas The NFL on Wednesday defended its controversial handling of the Kareem Hunt investigation, even though incriminating surveillance video of the star running back footage that surfaced months after his skirmish with a woman in a Cleveland hotel led to the Kansas City Chiefs releasing him.
There is information out there in this surveillance society that we cant get when we need it, and when we get it we act on it, said B. Todd Jones, the leagues special counsel on conduct said at the December owners meetings, making his first public comments on the incident.
Hunt, the NFLs defending rushing champion, was captured on video shoving and kicking a woman in the hallway of a Cleveland hotel in February. Police were called but no arrests were made. The NFL and Chiefs contend they never saw that video until TMZ released it last month.
There were undeniable parallels between the Hunt situation and the Ray Rice controversy in 2014, when that Baltimore Ravens running back punched his fiancee in a hotel elevator, knocking her unconscious. The league was sharply criticized for being too lenient with Rice in its initial punishment of him, seeming to take the situation seriously only after the elevator video surfaced. The big question at the time: How hard did the NFL work to get hold of that footage?
This was not the same situation in 2014, other than the fact there was a video that was disclosed late in the game, said Jones, former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. We did learn lessons from 2014. We did request that video up front. We were aware that it was there and couldnt get it. Somebody made the decision for monetary reasons to sell it to TMZ. Thats unfortunate.
Once it was released, we reopened the investigation and its ongoing. Theres been no discipline imposed yet.
As for why the NFL did not interview Hunt as part of its investigation, and has yet to do so, Jones said: People in the business sort of understand that you dont sit down with the suspect until you have a fuller handle on the facts because youve got to be able to ask some intelligent questions beyond, Were you there? and Did you do anything? So I think that the sequencing of the interviews was appropriate given the information we had at the time.
While noting that the NFL does not have subpoena power to demand information, Jones said its not likely at all that the league will begin paying for video as part of these investigations.
To become mercenary and pay for videos opens up a Pandoras box of all kinds of opportunities, and things may come to us in the form of not just surveillance videos in public places, but youre talking about the world of social media, he said.
Echoed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell: We obtained material that we have access to. We look to do that. But were not going to do it by corrupting people or trying to find a way to bribe us into giving us video. Thats not what we do.
BEYOND THE
BORDERS
The league announced the five home teams for international games in 2019 four games in London and one in Mexico City.
The Los Angeles Rams and Chargers are among the teams, along with Jacksonville, Oakland and Tampa Bay. The league has not said which team will play in Mexico City, which was supposed to play host to last months Chiefs-Rams game before that matchup was moved because of poor field conditions.
A DRAFT ON THE STRIP
