Andy Reid on Kareem Hunt: People deserve a second chance if they worked on the first part

The Chiefs have officially brought Kareem Hunt back to the franchise, several years after the team released him after video surfaced showing the running back pushing a woman to the ground and then kicking her.

Head coach Andy Reid expressed no reservations about extending Hunt’s contract during his press conference on Wednesday.

“Yeah, so what we told him and said publicly (in 2018), we just thought he needed a change of scenery and needed to get some help, get things done there. And we felt like he did that,” Reid said. “He did a good job in Cleveland. We talked to the people there and there were no issues there. So we felt comfortable bringing him back.

“He’s 29 years old now — time flies — but he’s 29 years old and he seems like he’s matured a little bit.”

Reid noted that this was the first time the Chiefs had real, genuine conversations about bringing Hunt back to the franchise. But based on conversations with Browns officials and quarterback Patrick Mahomes staying in touch with Hunt, the Chiefs felt comfortable bringing him in.

“Just calling around and making sure everything was going well,” Reid said. “Pat remained good friends with him. He was at Pat’s wedding. So those two ended up in the same class and developed a friendship here. And then the general manager (of Cleveland) spoke highly of him — coaches, and so forth. So we felt good about it. … I think people deserve a second chance if they’ve done something to work on the first part.

“I think what we meant was that you’ve got to take care of this. This isn’t good for your life — for anyone. So he seems to understand that. I know he’s done well here since then. And I expect that to continue. But if he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have brought him back.”

While things have changed for the Chiefs since Hunt last played for them in 2018, the fundamentals of the system remain the same — meaning it likely won’t take Hunt long to get back into the swing of things and play. Reid said Hunt will be doing more with the scout team than the Chiefs’ offense early on, and the staff will evaluate things from there.

“He knows the basic protections, he knows the basic runs,” Reid said. “Some of the routes are a little new, but we don’t let him do everything. Some of the terminology, he just has to hear the route terminology. But right now it’s just job specific to that team. It’s not like you come into training camp and you have 300 plays. He just has to make sure he sticks to it.”

Last season, Hunt rushed for 411 yards with nine touchdowns and caught 15 passes for 84 yards with Cleveland.

“He had sports hernia surgery a while back,” Reid said. “So I think he was a little bit off of that, just recovering. But I still saw the flare, the toughness when he got back into it. And we’ve had him work here and felt good about it. But we’ll see.

“He comes out there, the running backs — he’s 29 years old,” Reid added with a laugh. “For a running back, that’s old.”