Earlier this month, the Cleveland Browns signed embattled running back Kareem Hunt, and new Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens thinks Hunt can definitely help the team.
Kitchens also feels that Hunt returning to his hometown ballclub can do him the “most good.”
“Kareem has to be willing, has to show remorse and be willing to make a change,” Kitchens said, according to Pat McManamon of ESPN.com. “And he's shown us that. It could be in Kansas City, Cleveland, that doesn't matter. In a lot of ways, you know, it's more important for Kareem to make those advances and to evolve into a better person in his hometown. That's where he's going to do the most good.”
Hunt was released by the Kansas City Chiefs late last season after a video surfaced of him assaulting a female at a Cleveland hotel last February. The video came out in late November, and the Chiefs released Hunt immediately. He was also placed on the commissioner's exempt list.
“There's some good that can come out of this,” added Kitchens. “We never justify anything that's happened. But there's some good that can come out of this if he keeps evolving and keeps doing the things he's supposed to do to become a better person. And we'll worry about the football stuff later. But right now we're in the Kareem Hunt business of making him a better person.”
As for whether or not this is a “second chance” for Hunt? Kitchens believes that's coming:
“Now it's our job to move forward and support him and get him to a place as an individual and as a person to give him the opportunity, a second chance, per se,” Kitchens said. “The second chance is not now. He's got a lot of work to do between now and that time the second chance comes. We'll see how that goes. Right now we're day to day and just trying … to offer him support where he needs to become a better person to get him eventually on the field.”
Kitchens will enter his first season as the team's new head coach, and he will try to help Cleveland become an AFC contender.
Follow Us
Subscribe