As Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy prepares to serve the third game of a four-game suspension for violating the Personal Conduct Policy in connection with an incident occurring in May 2014, the man who gave Hardy a second chance suggests that a second chance may not have been needed.
In a profile debuting tonight on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones suggests that Hardy wasn’t convicted of any crime because he possibly didn’t do it.
“We really did our homework and our investigations,” Jones tells Bernard Goldberg. “And the facts are that he was not convicted.”
“He wasn’t convicted because the girlfriend didn’t show up after he was convicted the first time,” Goldberg said.
“Yes, well, you could say that,” Jones said. “But he might not have been convicted because he didn’t do it.”
A judge in North Carolina found as a preliminary matter than Hardy was guilty of domestic violence, but by law he was entitled to a separate trial before a jury. The alleged victim didn’t show up for the jury trial, reportedly because she reached a civil settlement with Hardy.
Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Hardy 10 games. Arbitrator Harold Henderson reduced the suspension to four games, and Hardy opted not to file suit to further reduce the punishment to two games, which was the standard penalty for a first-time domestic violence offender under the version of the Personal Conduct Policy in place as of May 2014.