Electronic Arts has revealed that it has removed former Kansas City Chiefs running back, Kareem Hunt, from Madden NFL 19 following the surfacing of a video showing the professional athlete assaulting a woman at a Cleveland hotel.
In case you missed it, last week TMZ revealed footage that graphically depicted Hunt kicking and shoving a woman in a hotel and hallway from last February that had been previously kept under wraps.
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As you would expect, once the footage surfaced, the Kansas City Chiefs swiftly kicked Hunt from the team. The running back has since been sitting in Free Agency, where he’s unlikely to be picked up by any team.
In the Madden NFL series, there are Free Agent players represented in the game, but rather than make Hunt a Free Agent in the game, EA has opted to give him the boot all together.
“We are in the process of removing Kareem Hunt from the Madden NFL 19 roster, Madden Overdrive and Madden Ultimate Team,” said an EA Sports representative, speaking to TMZ. “Any of our players who currently have Hunt on their Ultimate Team will receive a replacement generic player with identical stats.”
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time EA has dealt with something like this in 2018. Back in September when FIFA 19 released, a 2009 rape accusation was re-opened for investigation against the game’s cover star and world’s most famous player, Christiano Ronaldo. However, unlike the Hunt situation, no evidence has been put forth that has elevated the accusations, so it’s not quite the same situation as Hunt, who was caught on tape beating a woman.
At the time of accusations re-surfacing, EA distanced themselves from the Juventus player, and even downplayed his presence on the game’s official website. However, after the chatter around the incident died down, so did EA’s downplaying. To date, he remains in the game and the face of it.
Personally, I think removing Hunt from the game completely was the right thing to do by EA, not to mention the smart thing to do from a PR perspective. Doing nothing or doing little would have only resulted in backlash, something EA already has plenty of on a regular basis.
Source: TMZ
