Chiefs activate Kareem Hunt 6 years after cutting him - ESPN

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Walking out of the team's practice facility for the last time as a member of the Chiefs in 2018, running back Kareem Hunt didn't dare dream that he would ever return.

So it was still with a sense of surprise, more than a week after he rejoined the Chiefs, that he was back.

«It's crazy how some things happened to work out,» Hunt said. «It was a lot, honestly. It was a lot of emotions. I was very excited, a little nervous and stuff like that, [but] these guys know me. I've just got to go and be myself.»

The Chiefs activated Hunt to the active roster after a week on the practice squad, and coach Andy Reid said Hunt would play in Sunday's game against the Chargers in Los Angeles.

Indeed, Hunt's return to the Chiefs is quite a twist. The team released him in the middle of the 2018 season when a video surfaced showing Hunt kicking and shoving a woman outside his residence.

The Chiefs at the time said Hunt hadn't been truthful about the incident when they had asked him about it. He then signed with his hometown Cleveland Browns, for whom he played the past five seasons.

«I was very young at that time, 23, and had a lot of success going for me and felt like I guess I needed time to figure myself out and learn, and I felt like it was good for me to do that,» Hunt said. «I had an opportunity to go to the Browns and stuff, and that's my hometown, so I guess it worked out.

»I learned that everybody doesn't have their best interests for me, even family, friends and stuff like that. I just had to reflect on a lot of things and see 'How did I end up here?'"

Hunt acknowledged the difficulty of watching the Chiefs win championships from afar. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2019, the year after he was released, then