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Today, we’ll focus on the afternoon’s big news and take a closer look at the reduction of Greg Hardy‘s suspension. After initially being banned for 10 games, the Cowboys defensive end had his suspension cut to four games today by arbitrator Harold Henderson, who said in a statement that 10 games was “simply too much of an increase over prior cases.”
Taking into account the details of Hardy’s domestic violence case, a mere four-game suspension sounds awfully light, especially considering Tom Brady is currently facing the same penalty for his possible involvement in DeflateGate, a case which lacked the sort of hard evidence available against Hardy. Of course, the two cases are wildly different, but it still isn’t a good look for the NFL that the two players are facing equal penalties.
On the other hand, Hardy’s domestic incident took place while the league’s old personal conduct policy was still in effect, and that policy called for a two-game suspension for this sort of violation. Throw in the fact that Hardy was forced out of action for 15 games in 2014, spending time on the commissioner’s exempt list while the legal process played out, and you could make a case that the four-game ban is still too much. Agent Drew Rosenhaus left the door open today for Hardy to continue to fight the suspension in court in an effort to reduce it to two games, though Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link) says that’s unlikely to happen.
What do you think? Is a four-game suspension fair for Hardy? Should he and his camp drop their fight and accept the reduced penalty? And, on a somewhat related note, does today’s ruling alter your view of Brady’s appeal, and how Roger Goodell might rule in that case? Weigh in below in the comments section with your thoughts and opinions and the subject. We’re looking forward to hearing what you have to say!
My thoughts: In a vacuum, a four-game suspension isn’t enough for what Hardy did, but the NFL’s hands are somewhat tied in this case. The league can’t just arbitrarily choose a number of games when a specific number was written into the old policy for cases like this — the fact that the old policy was so lenient means even four games is more than Hardy would have received in the past, though I think it’s probably in his best interest to simply accept the reduction and move on.
This is the last notable case that the old policy should apply to, so hopefully we’ll see more punitive penalties going forward for this sort of behavior.
I’m also more confident now that Brady’s suspension will be cut at least in half. Goodell would get absolutely killed if he kept it at four games, in line with Hardy’s.