Everyone's Mad The Chiefs Signed Justin Tucker, Nobody's Asking Why

What sort of message do you think with the signing of Justin Tucker to the practice squad that sends out to female fans in the city? Yeah, so he's done his suspension, you know, and took care of that business there. But I'll leave it at that for you. Everyone's talking about the Chiefs signing Justin Tucker. Nobody's talking about why. And the why goes back 17 years and runs through one man. So here's my question. Second chances? Or has winning become the only background check that matters? Sixteen massage therapists accuse Tucker of sexually inappropriate conduct. He calls it unequivocally false, and he was never charged or sued. The NFL gave him 10 games, and in Kansas City, that's apparently the end of the conversation. Greed keeps coming back to one word, and he used it again for Tucker. Homework. Back in 2016, his general manager passed him a question about how hard they'd vetted a different player. He's done his homework here, so there has to be a certain trust here. There's just things that we can't go into. We're going to... Trust us. We looked into it, and please don't ask what we found. Hunt, Hill, Rice, Now Tucker, and that one translation covers all four. The case that bothers me most didn't need a signing. He was already inside the building. We'll get there. First, the kicker. In Seattle, the Chiefs took their first loss of the season, 20 to three, and Harrison Butker missed two more kicks. Within days, Tucker had a workout and a contract. Read on why. We had a practice squad position open, and so for security we brought him in. Here's how it came out. The Baltimore Banner reported that massage therapists said he behaved in sexually inappropriate ways during sessions between 2012 and 2016. Within weeks, it was 16 women at eight spas. The Ravens cut him in May and called it a football decision, which is front office for it's not you, it's me. In June, the NFL suspended him 10 games. He didn't appeal, and he still denies it. The women's lawyers had a take on that. To deny wrongdoing and consequently leaves Many of the victims are clients with the stain of a denial. He served the 10 games as a free agent. The Saints worked him out, the Jets worked him out, and both passed. Then came a team with a bad kicker, a great record, and a head coach who'd leave it at that. Even one of their own Super Bowl champions wasn't having it. 16. And the Chiefs are telling you, this is how little we care about this? Now the part that'd almost be funny. The 2024 AFC title game, pre-game warm-ups, Tucker's version. And then Travis comes over and he just kicks my stuff and he throws my helmet. And I just thought it was all just some gamesmanship, you know, all in good fun. The day Tucker signed, somebody asked Mahomes about it. It's because he's obviously on the Ravens and I was on the Chiefs. But it wasn't like we ever had any beef or anything like that. I think at that moment, it was just competitors being competitors. Funny how fast beef turns into teammate once the kicker can help. Tucker's the newest name on a very long list, and the list started with a receiver and an excuse you've already heard. The Chiefs drafted Tyreek Hill in the fifth round, a guilty plea already on his record. At Oklahoma State, he'd been arrested and charged with punching and choking his then-pregnant girlfriend, and the school dismissed him. The next summer, he pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation. The sentence was deferred, and two years after the draft, the plea was withdrawn and the case dismissed and expunged. Legally, that's a closed book. My issue is who the Chiefs put on the payroll. A week after the draft, Reid put it this way. We do enough homework where we feel that he's headed in the right direction And deserves a second chance. Detroit Sports Radio, that same week, wasn't buying it. How does that conversation go? Hey, Tyreek, did you punch a pregnant woman in the stomach? Well, yes, I did. Okay, have a nice day. That's the model — homework nobody gets to see, graded by the guy who did it. Great system. Three years after the draft, police were called to his home over an injury to his to his three-year-old son, reportedly a broken arm. The district attorney said a crime had occurred, but the evidence couldn't establish who committed it. No charges, and Hill denies breaking his son's arm. Then, a Kansas City TV station aired an unauthenticated recording of Hill and the boy's mother arguing about it. That night, the GM stepped to a microphone. We were made of this information in real time, just like the general public. We were deeply disturbed. By what we heard, Brett Veach ended by saying they will make the right decision. In my mind, there is only one right decision by the Chiefs. That is to cut Tyreek Hill now. Three months later, the NFL made its call. Based on the evidence presently available, the NFL cannot conclude that Mr. Hill violated the personal conduct policy. No suspension, not one game, and the Chiefs didn't cut him. So how long did they wait before paying him? Seven weeks. $54 million. Five months later, Super Bowl 54. Third and 15, down 10, about seven minutes left. Mahomes went deep, Hill caught it for 44 yards, and the Chiefs went on to win. That one catch bought a lot of goodwill, and I'd argue they've been spending it ever since. Hill is the case where they kept the player. The next one, they cut within hours. Rewind to 2018. TMZ published a hotel hallway video from Cleveland, filmed earlier that year, showing Kareem Hunt, the reigning NFL rushing leader, shoving a 19-year-old woman and later kicking her. He was never arrested or charged, and it didn't matter. By the end of the day, the Chiefs had released him. Kareem was not truthful in those discussions. The video released today confirms that fact. We are releasing Kareem immediately. By their own wording, they'd already asked Hunt about it and taken his word. Hunt said to ESPN. Didn't you tell the Chiefs back then? I just didn't tell them the video. The video part that came out, I didn't say anything really about it. The NFL suspended him eight games after he'd signed with Cleveland, which you'd think ended Hunt in Kansas City. Six years later, Pacheco got hurt, the Chiefs needed a running back, and there was Hunt, Reid. I think people deserve a second chance if they've done something to work on the first part of it. Hunt, a week later. I was very young at that time, you know, 23. Had a lot of success going for me, and I felt like I just, I guess I needed time to, you know, figure myself out and, you know, learn. And the owner, a few weeks after that. As we talked about it as an organization here a few weeks ago, both Brett and Andy expressed to me that they felt confident that he had matured from that, that he had learned from the mistake. The owner doesn't say, we checked. He says, confident. That's trust us in a nicer suit. So what does homework mean in Kansas City? As far as I can tell, somebody talks to the player. With Hunt, the talk said yes until a tape said no. And on Tucker? So we try to do our homework the best way we possibly can and talk to a lot of people. I figured Hunt was where they'd draw the line. I figured wrong. Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark suspended two games for violating the league's personal conduct policy. A San Francisco 49ers player is now facing a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence. The Kansas City Chiefs are expected to release former Crimson Tide player Isaiah Buggs, this after recent arrests, according to ESPN. The NFL has suspended Rice for six games. Suspended. Charged, then signed. Cut. Suspended again. Frank Clark. At Michigan, his girlfriend told police he punched her, though she also admitted throwing things at him. He pleaded guilty to persistent disorderly conduct, reduced from domestic violence and assault. Kansas City traded a first and a second for him and gave him a deal worth over $100 million. Then, as a chief, two gun arrests in Los Angeles, a no-contest plea, and two games from the NFL. He has two rings, which in Kansas City doubles as a character reference. Damon Arnett shows it best. The Raiders cut him over a video that appeared to show him with guns threatening someone's life. Two months later, the Chiefs signed him. Guess how long he lasted? Nine days. Most gym memberships last longer. Then he was arrested in Las Vegas, accused of pointing a gun at hotel valets, and the Chiefs released him the same day. He later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors. Then there's Rashe Rice, a Lamborghini, and what prosecutors describe as a race against a Corvette on a Dallas highway. Prosecutors said that he was driving nearly 120 miles per hour before hitting another car on Central Expressway. Several cars, as a matter of fact. Several people were hurt. They also say he never checked on anyone and ran. Full responsibility, he said. Eight felony counts later, he pleaded guilty to two, five years of deferred probation, 30 days in jail, and about $115,000 in restitution to the victims. The NFL gave him six games. I completely changed. Honestly, you have to learn from things like that. When the six games came, Travis Kelce and some teammates wore Free Four shirts. A Dallas lawyer for one of the crash victims had a different slogan. Free-for is not nearly the advice we need to be giving. Free-for would be a more accurate t-shirt." He said he'd completely changed. Then came a lawsuit. The mother of his two children posted photos of bruises and sued him in Dallas for more than a million dollars, alleging abuse over about a year and a half. Rice's attorney points to an affidavit she signed. Mr. Rice and I had a verbal argument, but he did not punch me. As far as we can find, nobody's charged him with anything. The NFL closed its review, citing insufficient evidence, and the lawsuit is still open. Every one of those was a player the Chiefs signed, kept, or cut. The next case was already inside the building, three days before Super Bowl LV. A pickup doing 84 in a 65 zone near Arrowhead hit two cars stopped on the shoulder. A five-year-old girl, Ariel Young, suffered a traumatic brain injury. The driver was Britt Reid, a Chiefs assistant coach and Andy Reid's son. His blood alcohol was .113 about two hours later, and under oath, he said he'd been drinking at the team facility that night. Just from a human standpoint, man, my heart bleeds for everybody involved in that. Credit where it's due. Britt's contract wasn't renewed, and the Chiefs later said they'd pay for Ariel's care. Britt pleaded guilty in a deal that capped his sentence at four years. Ariel's mother, Felicia Miller, the next day. He's just getting a slap on the wrist. If anybody else had did that, if we did that, any of us hit his car, being drunk, hitting his car, and injured one of his kids, we would have been in jail. Britt got three years in prison. Then, Missouri's governor commuted the sentence to house arrest with less than half served. The Chiefs declined to comment. So here's the why nobody's talking about. This isn't really about the Chiefs. It's about Andy Reid. And for him, second chances aren't a slogan. On one January day, both of his sons were arrested. Garrett ran a red light, hit another car, and admitted using heroin. Police said Britt pointed a handgun at another driver. At sentencing, a judge called the Reid home a drug emporium. Both sons went to jail, and Reid took five weeks away from the Eagles. Two years later, Michael Vick was three months out of federal prison for a dogfighting operation, and the Eagles signed him. Reed, that night? We've signed Michael Vick. I'm a believer that as long as people go through the right process, they deserve a second chance. And Michael has done that, a tremendous amount of homework on this. There's that word again, and it predates Kansas City. This time, he had someone specific in mind. I've seen people close to me that have had second chances, that have taken advantage of those. The same week, he told the AP his own sons were why he'd followed Vick's case so closely. Three years later, at Eagles training camp, Garrett died of an accidental heroin overdose. He was 29. Britt later joined his father's staff in Kansas City. When Andy Reid says people deserve a second chance, I don't think he's reading off a card. I think he means it. But believing in second chances doesn't answer who pays when the bet goes wrong. And remember the $54 million receiver? His story took a turn in a Miami courtroom. We'll get there. First, let's be fair. The comment section says everybody does this. And it's partly true. The Browns gave Deshaun Watson $230 million fully guaranteed while 22 women were suing him over massage sessions. He maintains his innocence. Two grand juries declined to indict him, and the NFL gave him 11 games. I'd bet half the people typing that were furious at Cleveland. Other teams just gamble. Kansas City has Andy Reid, and Andy Reid has a test. Here it is, in his words. I mean, the kid, he served a suspension. It's been time. There's been time involved with it. So that's how I value him. By that test, all that counts is whether the league is finished with him. Whether it happened, or what the women said, doesn't come into it. A suspension doesn't vouch for anyone's character, and the Chiefs are hanging it up like a diploma. So, somebody asked the obvious question. When you say homework... Yeah, I'm not, listen, I'm not gonna get in, oh, I'm not gonna get into all that. But I, to bring him in here, I did some homework, yeah. 17 years of homework, from Vic to Tucker, and nobody outside his office has seen a page of it. Here's where I land. A second chance gets earned in public. You say what you did and show what changed. Reid's version is quieter. Serve the suspension, say you did your homework, and let the winning do the rest. I'd call that a scoreboard test with a nicer name. Now the owner, during the Hill investigation. It's something that, as a franchise, we have to be willing to own when it doesn't go the right way. Own it is a great line. Since the Tucker signing, the owner and the general manager haven't said a word about it that we could find, and the league just writes the paperwork. So who pays when a bet like this goes wrong? Not the front office. A five-year-old named Ariel Young, and a family still living with that night. The women who spoke up and watched a kicker get a roster spot, and the fans who were sold character. Where it stands. Tucker's on the practice squad, and Rice's lawsuit is open. And Tyreek Hill? The man the Chiefs gave 54 million dollars? For three hours of deliberations tonight, the jury finding Tyreek Hill liable on just two counts of battery. That was a civil suit brought by his estranged wife. The jury ordered him to pay $500,000 and sided with him on eight other claims. The NFL's review is still open. Days before the verdict, The Athletic reported the Chiefs were very interested in bringing him back. He's still unsigned. Andy's track record is, I care about what you do in the building. That's who he's always been. That's a Chiefs fan, on his own show, and I can't argue with him. In Kansas City, what you do in the building seems to be the only reference check that counts. Next time Tucker is activated, or Rice has a court date, or the NFL rules on Hill, I'm betting somebody says homework again. So where do you land? Second chances or winning at any cost? Tell me in the comments. The last word goes to the man himself. I'll leave it at that for you.