Whatever the NFL did to obtain details regarding the February 2018 incident involving former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt, it clearly wasn’t enough. And now more details are emerging regarding what the NFL did, and didn’t, do.
According to Steve Vockrodt of the Kansas City Star, the NFL did not make a formal request for records relating to the Hunt incident until November 30, the same day that TMZ published video of the altercation at a hallway of a Cleveland hotel.
The NFL insists that its investigation began much earlier.
“We had multiple verbal conversations with Cleveland police officers and requested surveillance video immediately upon learning of the incident in February,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Star. “In addition, NFL representatives also made requests for surveillance video to the hotel property. We also obtained and reviewed the material developed by the police, which included the written reports prepared by the officers who responded to the incident, and later the interviews that were recorded by body cams and the recordings of the 911 calls.”
Per the report, a person named Jordan Carpenter, listing his company as the NFL, “filed a request for unedited versions of police reports, records, 911 calls, body camera footage, police radio reports and surveillance footage of ‘an incident involving multiple individuals occurring in the early morning hours of February 10, 2018.’”
Cleveland police previously admitted that it didn’t obtain video from the hotel because the authorities deemed the incident to be a misdemeanor not a felony. It’s unclear how aggressively or persistently the NFL impressed upon the Cleveland Police Department the importance of getting the video to the league’s ability to determine whether and to what extent Hunt should be punished.