Bernstein: Greg Hardy Makes A Mockery Of The NFL
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Even if you were trying to write a parody of the NFL's hypocrisy, the continuing Greg Hardy story would seem laughable. Were it a script for an episode of some TV show, it would never get out of the writers' room — easily shouted down as too over the top.
Let's see if we have this right: Hardy was convicted in 2014 of assaulting and battering his ex-girlfriend, smashing her into furniture, strangling her, threatening to kill her and throwing her onto a futon covered with semi-automatic rifles. He appealed the case and got it dropped on a technicality by paying the victim to not appear.
Next, the league launched into its predictable showcase derp-fest, conducting its own investigation that resulted in a 10-game suspension for violating the personal conduct policy. It was appealed down to four games, per the decision of an independent arbiter, of course, because the NFL's system of matching punishments to transgressions is completely made up as each case comes along.
An unrepentant Hardy returned to play for Dallas, pledging to "come out guns blazin'."
His boss, Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones, responded by telling SI.com, "That's just a way of expressing yourself. I hope his guns are ablazin'."
On Sunday, Hardy lost his mind on the field after the Giants returned a kickoff for a touchdown. He shoved his way into the ensuing special teams huddle, screaming at teammates and pushing people around, then slapping the clipboard out off the hands of coordinator Rich Bisaccia and shoving him before Dez Bryant intervened to pull Hardy away from the fray.
The guy pushed a coach, in anger, on the sideline.
And what did Jones think of that?
"That's the kind of thing that inspires a football team," he said. "He's one of the real leaders of this team and he earns it. I don't have any issue with him being involved in motivating or pushing any part of the football team because he plays and walks the walk. As a matter of fact, I would encourage it."
This is the world we live in as football fans.
And in the wake of this latest incident, Jones feels the time is right to reward Hardy with a contract extension. On 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Tuesday, Jones said, "When we initially signed, talked to him, asked him to join the team, it was not only with the idea of the short term but a long-term purview. He's, relatively speaking, a young player, and he certainly has the kinds of skills and impact that we want to look to the future with with the Cowboys."
It's too perfect to seem true, this inverted funhouse logic that can come to make some kind of sense only in this system — one that needs to make the most of every opportunity to use able, violent men in the quest for victories.
The story of Greg Hardy almost ends any question or debate regarding these things, destroying any subsequent waste of time discussing where lines are drawn or what should motivate teams. It's so ideally twisted and so entirely football in its stark amorality. Nobody involved in this is pretending anything, which almost makes it refreshing.
Hardy is a horrible guy, but he can rush the passer. It doesn't matter if we're OK with this or not, because we already were, and will be again.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
