The NFL has suspended Browns running back Kareem Hunt for the first eight games of the 2019 season for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, the league announced Friday. The suspension stems from a video that shows Hunt kicking and shoving a woman in a February 2018 incident, as well as a second report that Hunt punched a man at an Ohio resort in June 2018. The Chiefs released Hunt after TMZ published the video in November, and the Browns signed him to a one-year deal last month.
Hunt was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list when the video surfaced, a move that prevented him from playing football or practicing until the NFL concluded its investigation into the incidents. When the Browns signed Hunt, they knew he would likely face a lengthy suspension, and now they know he will miss exactly half the 2019 season. Hunt’s agency released a statement Friday morning that said he will not appeal the suspension:
Hunt also apologized again for his actions in a statement released by the Browns:
In 2014, the NFL updated its policies to make any violation of the personal conduct policy with regard to violence a six-game suspension. “Effective immediately, violations of the Personal Conduct Policy regarding assault, battery, domestic violence or sexual assault that involve physical force will be subject to a suspension without pay of six games for a first offense,” commissioner Roger Goodell said at the time. That policy has been unevenly enforced in the years since, and though the NFL has not released the findings of its investigation, it’s likely that Hunt got an eight-game suspension in part because there were multiple reports of him engaging in violence.
