It’s a banner day for women everywhere around the NFL.
After Ray Rice’s two-game suspension for knocking his wife unconscious (Hey, she apologized), it now appears the league’s other star abuser of women is going to continue to make his full $13 million this year.
According to Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review, Panthers General Manager Dave Gettleman indicated the team was not going to suspend defensive end Greg Hardy, who was convicted last week on charges of assaulting his girlfriend and communicating threats.
“We’ve been in touch with the league, . . . we have to respect the legal process,” Gettleman said.
Hardy has appealed his conviction, and will get a jury trial next. But that’s unlikely to happen before January, which means the Panthers will likely have Hardy available this season.
The franchise-tagged defensive end will make $13.1 million this season, or just over $770,000 per week.
They could conceivably suspend him up to four games for conduct detrimental to the team, but teams always prefer to leave such cases to the NFL. And as today’s ruling in the Rice case shows, that punishment will come later, if it’s felt at all.
Considering they’ve made no effort to reach a long-term contract with Hardy, who could be an unrestricted free agent again next year, they might never have to feel it, either.