Mike Eshleman
Staff Writer

The vast majority of people have heard a lot about the Ray Rice situation. For those that forget, a video surfaced of Rice, an NFL running back for the Baltimore Ravens, knocking out his wife in an elevator and then proceeding to drag her out. Rice was later released by the Ravens and has been out of the NFL since. However, Rice has stepped up and realized his actions were heinous and has since tried to clean up his image, even going as far as to work with the NFL as an advocate against domestic violence.
And then there’s Greg Hardy.
Greg Hardy was a defensive lineman for the Carolina Panthers, and a very good one at that, but on May 13, 2014, shocking details came out about Hardy’s part in a domestic violence case.
Hardy’s girlfriend at the time, 24-year-old Nicole Holder, stated that Hardy had beaten her very badly and brought up some very gory details that included Hardy throwing her from a bed, throwing her into a bathtub and even throwing her onto a futon that was allegedly covered in rifles. There are more details, but that’s beside the point. Holder was beaten by a 6’5”, 280 pound football player.
On February 9, 2015, the case was essentially tossed out after Holder had made herself unavailable to the district attorney office and failed to show up to court. After this, Hardy pleaded his case to come off of suspension and to be eligible to play, which was passed. The NFL brought his suspension from 10 games to only 4. But just recently, some very graphic photos have surfaced of Hardy’s ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder that reveal the extent of the damage done that night. Holder had many bruises and cuts all over her body.
Yet after all of the evidence that has surfaced, and the fact that Holder may not have shown up to court strictly out of fear, the Dallas Cowboys will still pay this guy $11 million to play a game for them. Hardy has not taken any initiative to try and change his ways like Rice has, and still has tendencies of being a very dirty player, a locker room distraction and an overall immature person. He has shown essentially no remorse, yet still has the privilege of playing in the National Football League.
Once the video of Ray Rice surfaced, it did not take long for the Ravens to take action and part ways with him, but once the evidence against Hardy came out, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones steps in to offer support for Hardy and even went as far as to call him a “team leader”. I have a very hard time calling someone who has beaten their significant other and showing no remorse a leader but what do I know, I’m not an NFL owner. Hardy has done nothing to show that he was deserving of a second chance to get back on the football field. He has been in negative light for getting into shouting matches with teammates and coaches, taking cheap shots against his opponent and largely showing a complete lack of maturity. It gets to a point where your off the field troubles vastly outweigh what you can do on the field, and it’s time for the Cowboys to do the right thing.
Domestic violence is a very serious topic of discussion and for the Cowboys to continue to employ this man while paying him millions of dollars is nothing short of ridiculous and only bringing them and the NFL negative publicity. If you ask me, the Cowboys should cut Greg Hardy and the NFL should get him the help he needs because playing football is not the answer right now, and the NFL and the players union should reevaluate how they handle situations like these in the future.