After securing their third straight Super Bowl berth at the weekend, an emotional Travis Kelce fought back the tears when discussing a Kansas City Chiefs teammate he holds very close to his heart.

‘That’s my family right there man, I love that guy to death,’ Kelce told reporters about running back Kareem Hunt.

‘He’s come a long way,’ the тιԍнт end added. ‘And he’s really leading our team with his mentality and his style of play, and I love playing with him, man.’ 

Few would have anticipated Hunt finding himself in this position a little over six years ago.

Back in November 2018, the former Toledo college star, 23 at the time, was released by the Chiefs in disgrace when shocking footage of him shoving a female to the ground and kicking her in the hallway of a Cleveland H๏τel surfaced online.

The pair were first seen trading words in the hallway as multiple people tried to separate them. Hunt was then captured pushing the woman before she responded by hitting him in the face.

Kareem Hunt has completed a stunning road to redemption with the Kansas City Chiefs

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After two men escorted him down the hallway, Hunt eventually charged back out and collided with a man who knocked the woman over, before he kicked her in the leg and was pulled away.

At the time of the incident, the female allegedly told police it started when Kareem kicked her out of his room after she refused to hook up with one of the men in his entourage. Kareem’s friends, meanwhile, accused her of reacting furiously after being told to leave and even using the n-word.

No charges were filed against Hunt after the woman in question eventually stopped cooperating with authorities, yet the NFL still placed him on the commissioner’s exempt list, before Kansas City opted to terminate his contract after claiming he had lied about the incident when quizzed on it.

‘As part of our internal discussions with Kareem, several members of our management team spoke directly to him. Kareem was not truthful in those discussions. The video released today confirms that fact. We are releasing Kareem immediately,’ a Chiefs statement read at the time.

Almost 18 months since being selected in the third round of the 2017 draft, Hunt – who led the NFL in rushing as a rookie in 2017 and was on course for another 1,000-yard season before his release – was briefly exiled from the NFL under a huge cloud after the video of the ᴀssault in Cleveland went viral.

‘I deeply regret what I did,’ he said in a brief statement after being released by the Chiefs. ‘I hope to move on from this.’

Fortunately for Hunt, just three months later he was offered a lifeline in the NFL by the Cleveland Browns.

Hunt left the Chiefs in disgrace six-and-a-half years ago after he was seen ᴀssaulting a woman

The running back moved to the Cleveland Browns three months after his Chiefs release

He was issued an eight-game suspension upon signing for the Browns in February 2019

The Browns snapped up the free-agent running back in a move that raised eyebrows after his ᴀssault controversy, but his arrival in Cleveland allowed the NFL to finally hand him a punishment.

Hunt was officially suspended for eight games in March 2019 for violating personal-conduct policy, a penalty he fully accepted.

‘I want to again apologize for my actions last year,’ he said in a statement after receiving the suspension. ‘I know that my behavior hurt a lot of people, and I again apologize to them.

‘I respect the league’s decision on discipline, and I appreciate the time I spent with Commissioner [Roger] Goodell last week. I’m grateful for my time with the Browns over the last month and thankful to all the people in the organization that have welcomed me. I also appreciate all of the support I received from my union through this process. 

‘My commitment to earning the trust of the league, my teammates, the organization and this community through my actions will continue, and I understand there is a lot of hard work ahead of me before I’m able to fully return to playing the game I love.’

After eventually returning to action in November of that year, Hunt went on to record 43 carries for 179 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, plus 37 receptions for 285 receiving yards across eight appearances in the 2019 season.

He played another 56 times for Cleveland and racked up 736 carries for 2,834 rushing yards and 23 rushing touchdowns, as well as 110 receptions for 672 receiving yards, all while his former team won three Super Bowls in five years.

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At the wedding Hunt caught up with Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, who felt he had matured

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Nevertheless, during what would turn out to be his penultimate season at Huntington Bank Field, the former Chiefs man put the wheels in motion for a stunning return to Kansas City when he attended star quarterback and good friend Patrick Mahomes’ wedding in Hawaii.

Hunt jetted out to the island in March 2022 to watch Patrick tie the knot with childhood sweetheart Brittany, and also in attendance was Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.

As Mahomes celebrated his big day, Reid was able to catch up with his former running back for the first time since going their separate ways three-and-a-half years earlier. And he was impressed by what he saw and heard from a new-and-improved Kareem.

So much so, in fact, that he decided to re-sign him when running back Isiah Pacheco’s fractured fibula left him with a hole in his roster at the start of the 2024 season.

‘I mean, he just said he wanted to be there, I knew he had changed,’ Reid said after bringing Hunt back to Arrowhead in September. 

‘I had spent some time with him at Pat’s wedding. He’s got a good heart, even when he went through his deal, he’s got a good heart. 

Reid made the decision to re-sign him after an injury to his starting running back in September

Now Hunt is a key member of a Chiefs team targeting a historic three-peat next weekend

‘I had confidence that he could jump in and help us. I knew he wanted to redeem himself amongst the community and kind of get that part that people can change and ‘I’m changed’ is what he’s saying, so I think that’s been a positive.’

Six-and-a-half years after being dropped by the team in shame, Hunt is now part of a Kansas City team on the cusp of writing history as the first team in NFL history to win three straight Super Bowls.

Hunt, who registered his highest number of rushing yards (728) in the regular season since 2020, was outstanding for the Chiefs in their AFC Championship win over the Bills on Sunday night, taking on much of the workload with 17 carries for 64 yards and a touchdown. 

Next weekend’s showpiece in New Orleans will be the first Super Bowl of his career, and he told reporter Darren Smith ahead of their clash with the Philadelphia Eagles: ‘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.’

The 29-year-old is gearing up for his first Super Bowl appearance in New Orleans on Feb. 9

Mahomes, too, is delighted that his good friend is accompanying the team on their latest Super Bowl bid, insisting a victory over the Eagles would complete his incredible comeback story.

‘Obviously he made his mistakes, it’s well-documented,’ the quarterback said on the opening night of Super Bowl week in New Orleans.

‘But I think more than anything he’s learned from them, he’s become a better person from learning from those mistakes.

‘For him to get back to Kansas City and to be able to get him to a Super Bowl, and hopefully to be able to win one, would just be a completion of an amazing journey of someone coming back from their mistakes and becoming a better person from it.’