CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Sunday night in Pittsburgh Kareem Hunt ran angry, bulldozing his way into the endzone and trucking would be Steelers defenders twice.
He always runs angry.
Sunday afternoon in Kansas City when Hunt takes on his former team, the Chiefs, he plans to run just as angry.
“I automatically play with anger so I’m going find it,” Hunt, who remains close with Chiefs coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes as well as tight end and Cleveland native Travis Kelce, said. “You don’t have to worry about where I’m going to find it, but I’m going to find it.”
He might not have to look far.
Chiefs receiver Sammy Watkins didn’t go full JuJu Smith-Schuster in bashing the Browns, but he came close and provided some added incentive when he responded to a fan on Twitter Sunday night that the Browns might provide some competition for them to which he responded, “I wouldn’t go that far lol..!”
“We’ll just see on Sunday,” Hunt said in response Thursday. “We’ll let the play do the talking and there isn’t much to be said. If he believes that, we’ll see what he thinks after the game.”
Hunt’s story is well known.
Drafted by former Chiefs and Browns general manager John Dorsey in 2017, he led the NFL in rushing his rookie year, but the team cut him in November 2018 immediately after an ugly security video was published that showed him shoving and kicking a woman during an altercation outside a downtown Cleveland apartment eight months earlier.
It was Dorsey who gave Hunt a second chance with the Browns in February 2019. The NFL suspended Hunt for the first eight games of that season for misconduct and violent behavior off the field.
Hunt has since seized the opportunity to get his life off the field and career on the field back on track, and the Browns rewarded his efforts last fall with a two-year contract extension.
Hunt has been candid about the pain he felt watching the Chiefs win the Super Bowl last year and how he regretted not being part of it, but as they say, when one door closes, another opens.
“Being able to go to work for my hometown and the Cleveland Browns and to be in this position, and have a shot so late into the season, and to bring a ring home would mean more than anything to me,” Hunt said. “It’s just another week. I want to help bring a championship culture around here and that’s get a ring. My biggest goal coming into the NFL was win a Super Bowl before retiring. That’s been my goal.
“I never got a chance to win a national title in college or anything like that so [winning a] Super Bowl has been on my mind since I got drafted to Kansas City and they were able to get that goal, which they deserved. That’s a good program over there, good football team and good people.”
After scoring 2 touchdowns and combining for 61 yards on 9 touches in Sunday night’s 48-37 win over the Steelers, Hunt’s gut feeling he shared earlier this season with Nick Chubb came true – Browns and Chiefs in the playoffs.
“I just believed that we can definitely make a run and I kept telling him ‘I got a feeling we’re going to see them in the playoffs,’” Hunt said. “I knew they were going to make it to the playoffs. That’s a terrific program over there so I just kept telling Nick early in the season, ‘We’re going to make it into the playoffs and we’re going to make a run for it, and I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have to see the Chiefs in the divisional round or in something.’”
Like they were in Pittsburgh without four starters, four assistant coaches and their head coach, Hunt and the Browns are tremendous underdogs once again.
That’s just fine with Hunt.
“Our mindset is the exact same thing, we can play with anybody,” Hunt said. “As long as everybody in this building believes that we can win, I really don't care what anybody else on the outside has got to say. They can keep their opinions to themselves.”