Cowboys DE Greg Hardy has Panthers players’ support despite erratic history

Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy has run up quite a list of off-the-field incidents in his short time in Dallas, a docket that has run the gamut from talking with the media about Tom Brady’s wife to going after a Cowboys assistant coach during a game.

Those in the Panthers organization are all too familiar with Hardy’s history of erratic behavior, tardiness and truancy from his five-year stint with Carolina, which ended in the wake of misdemeanor domestic violence charges against him.

But even after Deadspin published the photos of Nicole Holder’s injuries this month, many Carolina players this week voiced support for their former teammate.

As the Panthers prepare to face Dallas on Thursday, cornerback Josh Norman said he didn’t have anything bad to say about Hardy. Fullback Mike Tolbert said he and Hardy remain in close contact, and Tolbert characterized him as a good friend.

And veteran linebacker Thomas Davis defended his decision to lobby the front office to re-sign Hardy last offseason.

“Greg Hardy is a guy that you flat-out want on your football team,” Davis said Tuesday. “He’s a guy that’s a game changer. He can go out and totally wreck a game plan if you allow him to. So of course we went and spoke up for him, trying to get him back. But a few details came out with his whole situation, and unfortunately we weren’t able to get him back.”

Davis didn’t divulge what those details were, but presumably they dealt with the sordid particulars and/or the injury photos from Hardy’s altercation with ex-girlfriend Holder in the early morning hours of May 13, 2014.

Davis was asked whether the photos of Holder, which showed bruises on her back, arms and chin, changed his opinion of Hardy.

“We all knew of the situation. We knew what was said to have happened,” Davis said. “It’s one of those situations where really to this point it’s still Greg’s word against hers.”

“I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there. So I can’t speak on that situation.”

Concerns date to draft

The Panthers had concerns about Hardy before the 2010 draft, when questions about his character and his commitment to football dropped the all-SEC player at Mississippi into the sixth round.

The Panthers’ background check turned up no legal issues on Hardy. But some of the team’s scouts and decision-makers thought Hardy lacked any sense of self-awareness, team sources said.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated after the 2013 season, Hardy said teams repeatedly asked him about his mental health in the months leading to the draft.

“With the Panthers, they asked me, ‘Why is everyone saying you’re bipolar?’ I didn’t get clinically tested for being bipolar. I’m not bipolar. But that’s the kind of questions I got all combine,” Hardy told Sports Illustrated. “I’m not crazy, but you walk into a room and people ask you that question. They were like, ‘Can we trust you to play?’ Really? I don’t understand that. If there was a psychiatrist in there I would’ve felt better, but these guys weren’t qualified.”

A pattern of poor judgment

Hardy demonstrated a pattern of poor judgment his first several seasons in Carolina. He was in a motorcycle wreck on a Tennessee interstate in the summer of 2011, causing him to miss the start of training camp.

And as has been the case in Dallas, Hardy was notorious for showing up late to the team facility, and some days he didn’t show up at all. A former Panthers player laughed at all of the sick days Hardy accumulated.

Panthers coach Ron Rivera benched Hardy for the start of at least two games for being late. Near the end of the 2012 season, Hardy missed a week of practice and didn’t make the trip to New Orleans for the season finale.

Another former teammate said Hardy didn’t tell anybody where he was that week and didn’t answer the phone, although team officials said Hardy was attending a relative’s funeral. A team spokesman said Tuesday that the Panthers were in contact that week with Hardy’s agent, who told them the day before the game Hardy wouldn’t be going to New Orleans.

“When he was here, we dealt with him how we had to. And the issues we had (with Hardy) we tried to deal with,” Rivera said Tuesday. “Unfortunately the big issue came about last year, and that was something that was out of our control.”

An expensive lesson

Hardy’s arrest came just two months after he signed a franchise-tag deal that guaranteed him $13.1 million for the 2014 season. After a District Court judge found Hardy guilty of assaulting Holder, the Panthers took no immediate action against him, and he played in the season opener at Tampa Bay.

But as pressure on the NFL mounted after TMZ aired the video of Ray Rice knocking out his fiancée, the Panthers made Hardy inactive for their Week 2 game against Detroit. Days later, Hardy went on the commissioner’s exempt list, where he remained while collecting his salary for the rest of the season.

The Panthers decided to part ways with Hardy before his charges were dropped when Holder couldn’t be located to testify at a second trial in February. Prosecutors said Hardy had reached a settlement with Holder, who has kept a low profile since testifying at the initial trial.

Asked whether he agreed with management’s decision to let Hardy walk, Davis said: “They’re the decisionmakers around here. We show up and play with the guys we have in this locker room. We love our team. We’re excited about the guys that we have. He’s a part of their team now.”

‘A good teammate’

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said Hardy has done a good job of “presenting himself as a good teammate.”

“He comes in with a good attitude and a good work ethic here in the building,” Romo said. “So teammates obviously root for him.”

Many of his former teammates do, too.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been criticized for calling Hardy a leader. But in the 2013 interview with Sports Illustrated, Hardy said he was on the Panthers’ “junior board of leaders,” along with Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly.

Tolbert, the Panthers’ fullback and a popular figure in the locker room, said Hardy deserves a second chance.

“I’m a loyal person, sometimes to a fault. He’s a good friend of mine. Everybody goes through things. Everybody makes mistakes,” Tolbert said.

“He can’t dwell on the past. He made a mistake. He knows he did it. He served his suspension. It played out legally. He’s just trying to go to work every day without being hassled.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 7:17 PM with the headline "Cowboys DE Greg Hardy has Panthers players’ support despite erratic history."