Chiefs’ Clark Hunt, Veach, Reid in wait-and-see mode amid Tyreek Hill investigations
On the heels of Kareem Hunt’s unceremonious release for lying about an incident in which he kicked and shoved a woman in the hallway of a Cleveland hotel, the Chiefs face another situation involving alleged interpersonal violence and one of their star players.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the Overland Park Police Department and Kansas Department for Children and Families confirmed they’re investigating alleged incidents of battery and child abuse or neglect involving receiver Tyreek Hill, Chiefs CEO and chairman Clark Hunt, general manager Brett Veach and head coach Andy Reid described a complicated situation that’s far from resolved.
“We don’t have the whole grasp of it yet,” Veach said Tuesday at the NFL’s annual owners meetings in Arizona. “We’re still working through it. We just don’t have all the information right now. Once we do, we’ll be able to make a decision that’s in the best interest of the organization.”
While the Hunt and Hill incidents share some similarities, reaching a measure of closure in Hill’s situation could be a lengthy process. Hunt’s late-November release from the team was swift because what he did was caught on video. There’s no known video of the incidents alleged to have occurred at the Overland Park home that Hill shares with fiancee Crystal Espinal and their 3-year-old son.
And in the case of Hill, 25, the authorities’ investigations are ongoing. Both the Chiefs and the NFL on Tuesday said they have no official update on his situation, and Hill’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, declined comment.
Reid and other Chiefs brass also said they haven’t been in contact with Hill since news of the initial investigation broke nearly two weeks ago.
“Our counsel’s told us not to do that,” Reid said of talking to Hill. “I have not been in contact with him.”
The organization wasn’t clear about exactly when it became aware of the alleged incidents. Hunt deferred such questions to Veach, telling The Star that Veach would “be able to tell you approximately when we heard about it.”
But the general manager didn’t give a clear answer when asked about the timeline and the Chiefs’ discovery.
“We released a statement (on March 15), and at that point we had enough information to feel like it was necessary to release a statement,” Veach said. “This whole time, we’ve had our security team and counsel inform us. (Tyreek) wasn’t here and then our counsel made us aware of what was going on. Now the league is involved. During this whole time, we’ve been in communication with the people that we’re allowed to talk to.”
The law enforcement and DCF investigations surrounding Hill stem from a pair of Overland Park police reports filed earlier this month, but it’s unclear when the alleged incidents might have occurred. A March 14 report concerns an alleged battery and lists a juvenile as the victim. Espinal, 24, is listed on the cover page of the report under “others involved.”
A second report, dated March 5, concerns an investigation of alleged child abuse or neglect and lists both Hill and Espinal as others involved. The March 5 case was closed three days later, when authorities declined to prosecute, according to the report. But it’s possible police decided to investigate that situation again. It’s also notable that the public is able to see only the front page of such police reports, per Kansas open-records laws; such reports commonly include more information on subsequent pages that are not made available to the public.
A source familiar with the situation has told The Star that one of the incidents was against the couple’s 3-year-old, resulting in a broken arm.
The Johnson County District Attorney’s office has declined to discuss the investigations.
When pressed further on Tuesday about how the timeline of police reports lined up with the Chiefs’ knowledge of the situation, Veach again declined to discuss specific details.
“Again, we’ve been provided information, and the clarity and the details, I think, are still being worked through,” he said. “We’re just waiting to see what’s real and what’s not. When we get that, we’ll be able to sit down as a staff and go through all the information and go from there.”
While due process takes its course, there’s another reality at play: The Chiefs aren’t in the middle of a season, but they do find themselves in something of a time crunch.
Hill’s status affects the rest of the team’s offseason plans. There isn’t another Tyreek Hill out there — not on another team, not in free agency and not in the NFL Draft. But if Hill isn’t, or can’t be, part of the Chiefs’ future, Veach and company would have to come up with a contingency plan.
In other words, instead of working toward a blockbuster contract extension that would make Hill the highest-paid player at his position, the Chiefs could be looking for his replacement.
For now, Veach said Hill’s uncertain future wouldn’t change his offseason strategy.
“We’re going to look to add receivers anyway because Tyreek had an heel injury last year and Sammy (Watkins) had a foot (injury),” Veach said. “You’re always going to look to add talent. If a guy is there where we’re picking (in the draft) and if he’s the highest-rated player on the board, and the talent meets the value, then you go in that direction. If we did pick a receiver early, it may be because it was part of our overall philosophy of roster-building.”
Despite having to jettison Hunt, at the time the NFL’s reigning rushing champ, and now confronted with an uncertain future surrounding Hill, who’d pleaded guilty to punching and strangling then-pregnant Espinal while in college (a case since expunged because Hill completed probation), Clark Hunt doesn’t think the organization made a mistake in drafting either player.
“Every general manager and head coach has their own philosophy on the type of players you bring in the locker room — and if they have problems in college, whether that’s something that the organization wants to take on,” Hunt said. “I think Andy throughout his career has been willing to give guys a second chance.
“I think you can ask Brett this, but my impression of working with Brett over the last year and a half is that he wants the guys to be pretty strong character guys coming out (of college).”
This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Chiefs’ Clark Hunt, Veach, Reid in wait-and-see mode amid Tyreek Hill investigations."