The NFL will welcome Greg Hardy back to the football field this weekend. The Dallas Cowboys defensive end was suspended the first four games of the season due violating the NFL's personal conduct policy. In case you forgot (or missed it), Hardy was convicted in a bench trial for assaulting and threatening his then girlfriend. He appealed the decision to a jury trial (a quirk of North Carolina law), and was placed on the Commissioner's Exempt list.
Eventually the prosecutor dropped the charges because the victim declined to cooperate with authorities. Some of the allegations from the incident can be found here. They include allegations he threw the girl on a couch covered with assault weapons and shotguns.
Hardy was suspended ten games, but an appeal cut it down to four. Hardy met with media on Wednesday in his first time back at practice. He did not come across well in any way. He talked about his return to action and hoped to come out "guns ablazin." Not exactly an ideal phrase given the previous allegations. Of course, that would assume he showed any remorse for the incident. He did not show remorse, and instead used the time to talk about how excited he was to see Tom Brady's wife at the game this weekend, and hoping she would bring her sister to the game.
FOX Sports 1's Katie Nolan addressed the topic on her show Garbage Time. If you get FS1, it's one of the few good shows they have, and I highly recommend watching it.
In the video above, she talks about the numerous problems with this situation. Hardy is a piece of garbage, but the comments of one reporter are pretty awful in their own right. A reporter asked if Hardy looked forward to playing the Jacksonville Jaguars, and whether he finds Blake Bortles's wife attractive.
What the hell? How can a reporter possibly think that's appropriate to ask? I would assume he just wanted to make Hardy laugh and be boys with him or something because that is so incredibly asinine.
The NFL does their Breast Cancer Awareness month, and tries to appeal to women in various ways, but this kind of incident just furthers the notion that the league does not actually care about women. They care about the perception of appealing to women, but when it comes to this kind of stuff, they don't actually care.
Aside from watching the video, prior to that, USA Today's Christine Brennan put together her own fantastic take-down of Hardy and the media. They are approaching the topic in a similar fashion, and the article is as much worth a read as the video is worth a view.