He's averaged 11 appearances a season for Newcastle over the course of the last three and a good portion of those weren't for a full 90 mins. Think a lot of players in his situation would happily settle for a regular place on the bench of a lower level Premiership club.
He's originally from London, but logically thinking Hull would be ideal for him as it'll mean that he won't have to uproot and yo would think they'll be able to offer a higher wage also.
Think (and hope) the Brighton link is just another case of lazy journalists seeing his contract is up, knowing he has worked with Hughton in the past and realising that as Greer has recently left we are now down one experienced central defender.
If there is something in it his past injury...