Hardy’s reduced suspension: Big win for Cowboys also a setback

It was a win for the Cowboys but a loss for humanity.

That’s the initial thought process after the NFL’s decision to reduce defensive end Greg Hardy’s suspension from 10 games to four for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

The suspension stemmed from a domestic-violence incident with an ex-girlfriend in May 2014 when Hardy was a member of Carolina Panthers.

There is no question what Hardy did was wrong.

The Cowboys certainly did not celebrate by popping bottles of champagne at their Valley Ranch headquarters. Owner Jerry Jones’ purposely muted response to the reduced suspension spoke volumes.

“We are looking forward to the start of the season and having Greg be a part of the team,” Jones said in a statement.

This was a win for the Cowboys, but it was not a step forward in the fight against domestic violence.

It was also the right outcome.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell overstepped his bounds by punishing Hardy for public-relations reasons as much as for his off-field incident.

The league took a public-relations hit in its handling of the Ray Rice situation last year, initially giving him a two-game suspension before a video that went viral showed him punching his then-fiancee in a casino elevator.

The problem was not just the suspension, but the fact that the NFL didn’t seek out the video before handing out punishment.

They aimed to get it right with Hardy and still ended up getting it wrong.

“I find that the conduct of Hardy clearly violates the letter and spirit of any version of the [personal conduct policy] since its inception, and of the NFL Constitution and Bylaws long before then,” arbitrator Harold Henderson, a former NFL executive, said in a statement. “The egregious conduct exhibited here is indefensible in the NFL. However, 10 games is simply too much, in my view, of an increase over prior cases without notice such as was done last year, when the ‘baseline’ for discipline in domestic violence or sexual assault cases was announced as a six-game suspension.”

That whole “too much” thing based on prior precedent was the foundation of Hardy’s appeal. The punishment for a domestic-violence offense at the time of Hardy’s incident was two games, per the collective bargaining agreement.

After the public-relations fallout from the Rice incident, the NFL changed the punishment to six games. And in an egregious effort to show that he was really serious, Goodell simply threw the book at Hardy.

After a two-month investigation, the league concluded that Hardy used physical force against his ex-girlfriend, Nicole Holder, in at least four instances on the same night.

Hardy was convicted of the charges in a bench trial, but the case in North Carolina state court was dismissed in February when Holder chose not to cooperate.

No one is crying for Hardy after what he did to Holder, and that’s not even considering that she didn’t show for his trial because she was reportedly paid off.

But two wrongs never make a right, and the league had no legal ground to stand on in its 10-game suspension.

Henderson had no choice but to reduce it.

Hardy could seek to have it reduced even more, too, if he takes the matter to federal court. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson went that route and had his suspension completely overturned.

Hardy hasn’t decided whether he’ll take further legal action, according to a source, though it’s most likely he will take the four-game suspension.

That would be best for all involved.

Hardy was wrong. There is no need for him to be defiant now.

He went from facing a 10-game suspension that was really more like 11, considering he would have been hard-pressed to return on a short week before the Thanksgiving Day matchup against his former team, the Panthers.

Now he will be back in the lineup for the Oct. 11 game against the New England Patriots.

A huge gamble by the Cowboys looks as though it is paying off after signing Hardy in March to a incentive-laden, one-year deal worth up to $13.1 million that took into account the possibility of a long suspension.

Hardy gets a chance to make the bulk of his money and hit some of those incentives.

The Cowboys’ defense finally gets an elite pass rusher it so badly needs.

The league lost, and it did the fight against the domestic violence no favors.

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Hardy’s reduced suspension: Big win for Cowboys also a setback."