KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Kansas City Chiefs quickly released running back Kareem Hunt six years ago after video footage surfaced of him pushing and kicking a woman in front of his home.

On Wednesday, the Chiefs welcomed Hunt back to the team, saying he had matured.

“We just thought he needed a change of scenery and some help and some business over there and we felt he did that,” Reid said. “He did well in Cleveland and we talked to the people there and there were no issues, so we felt it was okay to bring him back. … He seems to have matured.

“I think people deserve a second chance if they did something to work on the first part.”

The Chiefs, after losing starting running back Isiah Pacheco to a fractured fibula, signed Hunt to the practice squad on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Reid said Hunt could play in Sunday night’s game against the Atlanta Falcons.

Patrick Mahomes said he has remained friends with Hunt, who attended Mahomes’ wedding in Hawaii two years ago. The quarterback has been one of the most vocal Chiefs players about Hunt’s actions in the video, but he also said he was happy to see Hunt again.

“Everybody has friends who make mistakes — some of them are bigger than others, obviously — but at the same time, you want to make the person better,” Mahomes said. “You want to see them take the right steps to be a better person for themselves, their family and the rest of society. And so I think you’ve seen that with Kareem, and so I’ve stayed in touch with him to see how he’s doing, how his family’s doing, things like that.

“He’s been able to have a great career in the NFL, but I mean, you’ve seen him keep his cream of the crop and become a better person. And that’s what you want to do, to make everybody a better person.”

The Chiefs selected Hunt in the third round in 2017 — the same draft in which they took Mahomes. Hunt had a stellar rookie season, rushing for a league-high 1,327 yards, catching 53 passes and scoring 11 touchdowns.

He was well on his way to another 1,000-yard season in 2018 when the video surfaced. The NFL subsequently placed Hunt on the commissioner’s exempt list, and the Chiefs released Hunt, saying he had not been truthful when the team asked him about the incident at a Cleveland hotel where he kept an apartment.

Hunt, 29, has played for his hometown Browns for the past five seasons. His most productive season came in 2020, when he rushed for 841 yards and caught 38 passes. Last season, he rushed for 411 yards and caught 15 passes.