Moments after reaching another Super Bowl, Travis Kelce fought back tears in the Kansas City Chiefs locker room as he paid tribute to teammate Kareem Hunt.
The Chiefs narrowly beat the Buffalo Bills 32-29 at Arrowhead on Sunday night to reach the Super Bowl in New Orleans on February 9, against Philadelphia Eagles. And for running back Hunt, that game will represent a story of redemption.
He first reached stardom with the Chiefs in 2017, running for a league high 1,327 yards and eight touchdowns in his rookie year after being drafted from Toledo. But a year later, his career looked to be in ruins after video emerged of him assaulting a woman and the Chiefs released him.
In late November 2018, footage surfaced that showed Hunt shoving a woman to the ground and kicking her in the hallway of a Cleveland hotel. The Chiefs got rid of him but no charges were filed when the woman stopped cooperating with authorities.
He returned to the NFL with the Cleveland Browns in 2019 before Andy Reid gave him a second chance in Kansas City last September after Isiah Pacheco fractured his leg in Week 2.
‘That’s my family right there man, I love that guy to death,’ Kelce said of Hunt in an interview Darren Smith.
‘I’ve been his biggest advocate since all of that happened to try and get him back here and I tell you what man, I’m getting choked up just thinking about it.
‘I’m happy as hell man, he’s come a long way. And he’s really leading our team with his mentality and his style of play and I love playing with him, man.’
Hunt was outstanding for the Chiefs on Sunday night, taking on much of the workload with 17 carries for 64 yards and a touchdown.
At the time of Hunt’s return to the Chiefs, head coach Andy Reid said: ‘He did a nice job in Cleveland and we talked to people there, and there were no issues there.
‘We felt okay by bringing him back, he’s 29 years old now.
‘It looks like he’s grown up some. I think people deserve a second chance if they’ve done something to work on the first part of it.’
Mahomes, who was in the same draft class as Hunt, said about his return: ‘At the end of the day, I just root for the person to keep becoming a better and better person, and the football is secondary, but I’m glad to have him back and in the building.
‘Everybody has friends that make mistakes – and obviously some are bigger than others – but at the same time you want to make the person better and you want to see them taking the right steps to become a better person for themselves, their family and the rest of the society.’
Now, Hunt and his team can enter the history books in February if the Chiefs become the first team in the Super Bowl era to win three straight titles.
It will be Hunt’s first Super Bowl of his career, and he told Smith: ‘Man, I’m feeling great, revived.
‘I’ve always tried to make it to the Super Bowl, it has been my dream since I was a little kid and now it is finally here.’
