I’ve had plenty to say since Greg Hardy was first signed by the Cowboys about a subject I dubbed “Dallas Cowboys: America’s Team of Free Passes to Troubled Players.”
So I’ll keep this simple: Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett need to kick Greg Hardy off the team. They should never have signed him. Now they need to fire him.
Many of the details about Hardy’s assault on his ex-girlfriend were public all the way back when the Cowboys signed him early in the year. It mattered not at all that he won an appeal of his original assault conviction. We knew why he beat the rap the second time around — through some kind of settlement with the ex, Nicole Holder. I was just one of many who thought the decision by the Cowboys to sign Hardy was beyond horrible.
And once Hardy’s NFL-imposed suspension ended, he hasn’t disappointed us in living down to the lowest expectations — in his first comments to the media, when he decided to focus on opposing quarterbacks’ wives, and then when his so-called “passion” led him to get into an angry altercation with an assistant coach and other players.
Now comes today’s detailed report from Deadspin’s Diana Moskovitz with even more details and evidence, including photos, of Hardy’s violent attack on his ex-girlfriend.
A disgusting expose about a player whom Cowboys owner Jerry Jones referred to, post-sideline-fight, as “one of the real leaders on this team.”
[Update, 4:19 p.m.: My DMN colleague David Moore is reporting, through sources, that the Cowboys organization says that they never saw the photos of Holder before signing Hardy. I have two responses to this: 1) So they didn’t believe the victim until they saw the photos? Just thought she was exaggerating what was, without photos, a chilling story? 2) On the other hand, now that they’ve seen the photos, what better time than to reverse course and let Hardy go?]
But then again, this is the same Dallas Cowboys organization that steadfastly ignored problems related to running back Joseph Randle and domestic violence accusations against him. Look what it took for the team to finally release Randle.
I’ve read that Randle wasn’t living up to his on-the-field expectations; likewise, I hear that Hardy has been a monster on the field. (What’s most troubling is all the commentary I read and hear on the radio from grown men talking about just how scary Hardy is and how angry he always seems to be.)
I have no first-hand knowledge of how Randle and Hardy have performed. After Charlotte Jones Anderson made these outrageous remarks back in March (“We don’t believe in throwing people away” — not if they help us win football games, anyway), I said I wouldn’t watch the Cowboys if Hardy played for them. And I haven’t. Not a single game. And, yes, that’s difficult — I love football as much or more than probably many of you reading this post.
But I’m not conflicted about the right thing to do on Hardy. I am conflicted a tad about the Deadspin article. It’s important the story be told, but publishing the photos made me uncomfortable enough that I decided not to click through them. Freelance writer Jessica Luther, who writes regularly from that nasty intersection of sports and off-the-field violence, apparently had the same reaction and tweeted a few things worth repeating here:
Should part of the price a woman pays for being beaten by a famous man be that the public will consume images of her beaten body…
— Jessica Luther (@scATX) November 6, 2015
Should part of the price a woman pays for being beaten by a famous man be that the public will consume images of her beaten body…
— Jessica Luther (@scATX) November 6, 2015
We need a legal system that works. We need a culture that supports victims. We also have to remember Holder is a real person in the world.
— Jessica Luther (@scATX) November 6, 2015
So where do we go from here? It doesn’t matter to the Cowboys that I quit watching. But as I was running an errand earlier this afternoon in crazy traffic and listening to The Ticket Tickers regarding the Deadspin report, I had this crazy thought: What if all the people in the cars on Central quit watching? What if enough people got fed up to make a difference?
That probably won’t happen. But at the least, those of us who care have to keep pounding for justice for Nicole Holder and all the women in her shoes. This is not OK, no matter what the Jones Family tries to say from behind the curtain.
I’ll end where I started: Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett need to kick Greg Hardy off the team. That’s what it will take to make this sorry situation right.
So I’ll keep this simple: Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett need to kick Greg Hardy off the team. They should never have signed him. Now they need to fire him.
Many of the details about Hardy’s assault on his ex-girlfriend were public all the way back when the Cowboys signed him early in the year. It mattered not at all that he won an appeal of his original assault conviction. We knew why he beat the rap the second time around — through some kind of settlement with the ex, Nicole Holder. I was just one of many who thought the decision by the Cowboys to sign Hardy was beyond horrible.
And once Hardy’s NFL-imposed suspension ended, he hasn’t disappointed us in living down to the lowest expectations — in his first comments to the media, when he decided to focus on opposing quarterbacks’ wives, and then when his so-called “passion” led him to get into an angry altercation with an assistant coach and other players.
Now comes today’s detailed report from Deadspin’s Diana Moskovitz with even more details and evidence, including photos, of Hardy’s violent attack on his ex-girlfriend.
A disgusting expose about a player whom Cowboys owner Jerry Jones referred to, post-sideline-fight, as “one of the real leaders on this team.”
[Update, 4:19 p.m.: My DMN colleague David Moore is reporting, through sources, that the Cowboys organization says that they never saw the photos of Holder before signing Hardy. I have two responses to this: 1) So they didn’t believe the victim until they saw the photos? Just thought she was exaggerating what was, without photos, a chilling story? 2) On the other hand, now that they’ve seen the photos, what better time than to reverse course and let Hardy go?]
But then again, this is the same Dallas Cowboys organization that steadfastly ignored problems related to running back Joseph Randle and domestic violence accusations against him. Look what it took for the team to finally release Randle.
I’ve read that Randle wasn’t living up to his on-the-field expectations; likewise, I hear that Hardy has been a monster on the field. (What’s most troubling is all the commentary I read and hear on the radio from grown men talking about just how scary Hardy is and how angry he always seems to be.)
I have no first-hand knowledge of how Randle and Hardy have performed. After Charlotte Jones Anderson made these outrageous remarks back in March (“We don’t believe in throwing people away” — not if they help us win football games, anyway), I said I wouldn’t watch the Cowboys if Hardy played for them. And I haven’t. Not a single game. And, yes, that’s difficult — I love football as much or more than probably many of you reading this post.
But I’m not conflicted about the right thing to do on Hardy. I am conflicted a tad about the Deadspin article. It’s important the story be told, but publishing the photos made me uncomfortable enough that I decided not to click through them. Freelance writer Jessica Luther, who writes regularly from that nasty intersection of sports and off-the-field violence, apparently had the same reaction and tweeted a few things worth repeating here:
Should part of the price a woman pays for being beaten by a famous man be that the public will consume images of her beaten body…
— Jessica Luther (@scATX) November 6, 2015
Should part of the price a woman pays for being beaten by a famous man be that the public will consume images of her beaten body…
— Jessica Luther (@scATX) November 6, 2015
We need a legal system that works. We need a culture that supports victims. We also have to remember Holder is a real person in the world.
— Jessica Luther (@scATX) November 6, 2015
So where do we go from here? It doesn’t matter to the Cowboys that I quit watching. But as I was running an errand earlier this afternoon in crazy traffic and listening to The Ticket Tickers regarding the Deadspin report, I had this crazy thought: What if all the people in the cars on Central quit watching? What if enough people got fed up to make a difference?
That probably won’t happen. But at the least, those of us who care have to keep pounding for justice for Nicole Holder and all the women in her shoes. This is not OK, no matter what the Jones Family tries to say from behind the curtain.
I’ll end where I started: Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett need to kick Greg Hardy off the team. That’s what it will take to make this sorry situation right.
