NFL Needs to Take a Few Cues from TMZ to Avoid More Kareem Hunt-Like Failures

If the NFL wants to stop being consistently embarrassed by TMZ, it must become like TMZ.

Let me explain.

TMZ is a multimedia celebrity-gossip factory that makes news because it often pays for it. Sometimes this comes through stories; more explosively, it comes via video, like the footage it posted of former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt shoving and kicking Abigail Ottinger in a hotel hallway or the video of Ray Rice punching then-fiancee and now-wife Janay Palmer in an elevator.

A former TMZ employee explained the process of how such videos generally get into the site staffer's hands. TMZ gets information from a tip line—either via phone call or email—and then views portions or all of the…