Unlike most of America, the Dallas Cowboys still haven't had enough of Greg Hardy.
Jerry Jones is still defending Greg Hardy’s behavior, somehow
Hardy has been late to multiple meetings since the release of pictures from his domestic violence incident.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
After reports that the team was getting tired of his failure to even show up on time for meetings, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones revealed that, after a meeting last week, Hardy promised to work really hard on fixing his behavior.
“He is aware that everything he does -- his personality, his style, his enthusiasm -- it’s all going to be interpreted negatively,” Jones said after Sunday’s win over Miami.. “If he’s not aware of that, then he’s hurting a lot of people.
“I think he really gets that. We certainly feel that way. He understands it, and he has agreed to really work on it.”
Jones hasn’t always been judicious with his words about Hardy, and “he’s hurting a lot of people” won’t win him many friends when talking about a player that the Cowboys signed despite a ugly history of domestic violence.
According to ESPN, Jones met with Hardy on Thursday, Nov. 12 after the defensive end missed meetings that morning. He said that he stressed with Jones that he, too, has been put under pressure by the media, and Hardy has to learn to deal with it.
“If anyone knows how to hunker down, it’s me,” Jones said. “I know when you’ve lost all your benefits of the doubt and you so much as run as a stop sign or step out of bounds you’re fixing to answer a lot of questions.”
Jones, of course, has never been criticized for committing crimes of violence, and as ESPN pointed out, Hardy didn’t start missing meetings until the release of pictures of the damage he had done to his then-girlfriend.
Also, the meeting doesn’t seem to have worked very well, since the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Hardy was late to another meeting two days later.
The #Cowboys support for DE Greg Hardy is waning, I'm told. He was late last Thursday, late to a night-before game meeting last Saturday.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 22, 2015 Still, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett confirmed that the team will do everything possible to make Hardy’s life as comfortable as possible.
“I don’t think it has been easy for him,” Garrett said several days after the missed meetings. “I think he’s doing his best to handle it every day. He a highly scrutinized guy, and what we’re trying to do is create an environment for him where he can be his best.”
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