Greg Hardy leaves team to attend birth of baby

Defensive end Greg Hardy wasn’t on hand for the kickoff luncheon Wednesday, and also missed the Cowboys’ preseason finale against the Texans on Thursday.

For good reason, too.

Hardy had an excused absence from the team to attend the birth of his baby, coach Jason Garrett said.

“His girlfriend, they induced labor on their baby in the last 24 hours, so he was just simply involved with that,” Garrett said. “We’ve had a number of those with guys over the course of training camp where guys have been gone for a day or two. So I don’t know the news with that today.

“When I spoke with him last night, the baby had not been born yet. So hopefully that has happened and everyone’s healthy and we’ll see.”

It’s unknown whether Hardy will rejoin the Cowboys before he begins serving a four-game suspension at 3 p.m. Saturday. Hardy is not allowed to be involved in any team-related activities while he is suspended.

There remains a possibility that Hardy could try and get his suspension reduced, or possibly eliminated, by taking it to federal court. That option picked up steam Thursday with Tom Brady winning his “Deflategate” case against the NFL.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 11:31 PM with the headline "Greg Hardy leaves team to attend birth of baby."