Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy came off of his four-game suspension this week for allegedly assaulting his ex-girlfriend in 2014. The details were horrifying, with the woman alleging that Hardy choked her, threw her on a pile of guns and made her believe that she was going to die.
While the case was pending, Hardy spent the entirety of the 2014 season on the Commissioner’s Exempt List, a designation that can only be made by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and one that allows players placed on it to continue to receive their paychecks. Goodell initially ruled Hardy out for 10 games this year, but after an appeal, that was reduced to four.
In the offseason, the Carolina Panthers did not retain Hardy’s services, as he was there on a one-year franchise tag in 2014. He was picked up by the Cowboys, who were aware of two things and nothing more: That Hardy would be suspended for some length of time to start the season, guaranteed, and that he’d help their defense.
We have yet to see if the latter is the case, as Hardy won’t be taking the field until Sunday against the New England Patriots. But since being reinstated, Hardy hasn’t done much to help himself or his team any time he’s opened his mouth. It doesn’t matter, though: Hardy isn’t going to check his behavior because he knows that, aside from committing another crime, he will face zero repercussions for his behavior.
This week, a tone-deaf Hardy said that he will be coming out “guns blazing,” in his Cowboys debut. He made inappropriate and ill-advised comments about Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s wife, Gisele Bundchen. A really lame (and again, tone-deaf) rap video Hardy made during his suspension surfaced on Saturday. And, through it all, Cowboys owner-slash-general-manager Jerry Jones defended him.
Hardy, who has not discussed the allegations brought against him since being available to the media this week, clearly has no remorse for what he was accused to have done—and of course he doesn’t, given that he believes he was not guilty of anything, because he was not named guilty of anything. But the experience seems to have not changed him one bit. It’s almost as though he finds the whole thing to be a joke, and until or unless he runs afoul of the law again, there will be no further accounting for his behavior.
After all, this is a man who was allowed to earn every penny of his $13.116 million salary last year and was rewarded with a contract with Dallas that can earn him over $11 million with incentives this season. All of this, because twice—in 2012 and 2013—he had over 10 sacks in the year. This sport isn’t about paying you because you’re a good person, or not paying you because you’re an awful one—it’s about the bottom line of winning, winning as many games as possible, and finding those men who can make that a reality.
That’s all that Jones cares about with Hardy and because he’s an expensive player with a successful history of pressuring quarterbacks, Hardy is worth defending in Jones’ eyes, no matter how absurd he sounds when doing it. And Hardy will never, ever truly learn from the last 12-plus months of his life because nothing about his so-called “ordeal,” felt at any time like punishment to him. In the NFL, if a player is perceived as good at his job, he can get away with practically anything. There will, likely, always be someone like Jones willing to bring a player like Hardy aboard, and players like Hardy will forever continue to think responsibility is a laughable thing. When repercussions aren’t really repercussions, players like Hardy can continue to thrive and be rewarded. Because the NFL is a business, and it doesn’t ply its trade in morals.