The Dallas Cowboys began the 2015 season with much promise. OK, maybe I didn’t have them making the playoffs in my preseason predictions, but there were many fans who believed there were many reasons to believe the Cowboys would make the postseason and contend for a Super Bowl this year. But various injuries to key players, including quarterback Tony Romo, wide receiver Dez Bryant, have been a large part of the reason the Cowboys have started the season 2-4 and are currently in last place in the NFC East. But now they have another problem. Defensive end Greg Hardy just doesn’t get it; and the Dallas Cowboys should cut Greg Hardy.
Hardy was suspended for the first four games of the 2015 season after he was accused of strangling and threatening to kill a woman. The same woman he would throw onto a futon covered with loaded guns. The only reason the talented defensive end avoided jail time is because the woman failed to show up to court and no one could find the woman to compel her to appear, which was most likely due to Hardy having paid her off.
Before the Cowboys were to face the New England Patriots, Hardy’s first game back from suspension, the thick-in-the-head defensive end started talking about how he couldn’t wait to see Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen; and that he hoped Gisele would bring her sister and friends to the game. He has also stated that he votes for the Pro Bowl based on the hotness of players’ significant others.
I like to think that if I owned an NFL franchise there is zero chance I would sign anyone like Hardy. But I don’t and Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys, feels he has to sign players who give his team the best chance at winning. So he gave Hardy an opportunity and signed him, and then said that Hardy had a firm understanding of the serious nature of domestic violence. Based on his comments about Gisele he apparently doesn’t truly get how serious domestic violence is. Sure, the comments by themselves are probably not really that bad. But when they are made by someone who was accused of what Hardy was, it looks like said person views women as merely possessions or property. And that simply cannot be tolerated. And now he’s becoming even more of a distraction.
In the Dallas’ game against the New York Giants on Sunday, which ended up being the Cowboys’ fourth straight loss, Hardy’s temper shown through. After former Cowboy Dwayne Harris returned a kickoff 100 yards for what ended up being the winning touchdown, Hardy angrily got in the face of Cowboys special teams coach Rich Bisaccia and slapped Bisaccia’s clipboard out of his hands. The special teams coach then shoved him away with two hands. Later, a camera caught Hardy at it again, this time in an apparent heated argument with the injured Bryant. The often hotheaded wideout showed much more maturity than Hardy, and it wasn’t even close.
Hardy should be cut, or at least suspended, by the Cowboys; but apparently Jones and head coach Jason Garrett (a guy who supposedly loathes distractions) don’t feel the same way. Both Jones and Garrett actually encouraged the defensive end to continue to act like that, which should cause everyone to scratch their head.
I’m all for leaders on football teams getting in the faces of teammates now and again. It can help pump up a team if said team looks really flat. But there is a big difference between players like Tom Brady, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, or Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson getting in the face of a teammate, and someone like Hardy doing the same, along with knocking a clipboard out of a coach’s hands.
The first three players have all led their teams to at least one Super Bowl victory, so they have proven they can win and lead. Even more importantly, Brady, Rodgers and Wilson have never had an altercation with a coach, or been linked to violence, domestic or otherwise. Guys like that should and do get the benefit of the doubt if they are seen in a heated exchange on the sideline. Hardy is talented, but he, and players like him, should get exactly zero leeway. It’s obvious that talent seems to win out in the NFL in instances like this, but the Cowboys should cut Hardy, or at least suspend him for multiple games. Instead they continue to enable him.
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