Oakland Raiders: Reasons why adding Kareem Hunt is an asinine idea

It’s just the wrong thing to do

When it comes to violence against women, Raiders owner Mark Davis claims to have a zero tolerance policy.

For some of us, that line got a little blurred with the fact that he allowed Tom Cable to be hired. Ultimately though, Cable’s situation is a case of he said/she said, and we don’t know the whole truth of it – other than the truth that he’s a terrible coach who shouldn’t have been hired to begin with.

In the case of Hunt, we have video evidence of Hunt laying hands (and feet) on a woman. That, in and of itself, should render any talk of Hunt to the Raiders dead on arrival.

It seems utterly insane that guys like Joe Mixon and Greg Hardy get a second (or, in some cases, more) chance to play in the NFL. Yet, Colin Kaepernick who did absolutely nothing wrong, broke no laws, committed no crimes – unless you count exercising a fundamental right guaranteed in our Constitution a crime – continues to be kept out of football.

Yes, people deserve second chances. Yes, they deserve a chance to learn from their mistakes and become a better person. By all accounts, guys like Mixon and Tyreek Hill have – and have walked the straight and narrow since they got into trouble.

And yet, Hunt, doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. With what we’ve seen on video and with the league now investigating a second allegation of assault made just three months after the first, Hunt has a clear pattern of very poor judgement, a lack of impulse control, and violent behavior – including violence against women.

It’s behavior that should never be excused or justified. Nor is it behavior that should ever be tolerated, regardless of how much talent a player can bring to your team. Continuing to give these guys every benefit of the doubt, as well as chance after chance to play in the NFL only guarantees these sorts of things will continue to happen.

If the Raiders picked up Hunt – tempting though it might be, given his talent – they would be sending a terrible message. More than that, it would be doing the absolute wrong thing.

Mark Davis said zero tolerance for violence against women. It’s the right, moral stand to take.