So what was your takeaway from the news that the NFL suspended Greg Hardy ten games without pay for violating the personal conduct policy when he viciously beat his then girlfriend? Here at VICE Sports we thought "Hmm. OK." Perhaps yours was different; the whirring springs and bolts inside Adam Schefter's brain, for instance, spit out "This is the new NFL." Mike Florio, however, had a pretty interesting take: "excessive, to say the least."
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We''ll get back to that in a minute, but right now, let's just take a look at what, specifically, Hardy was suspended for, as per the NFL's statement on the matter. Hardy, the NFL states:Greg Hardy missed 15 games last year; adding another 10 to it seems excessive, to say the least.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 22, 2015
Even through the antiseptic language of an NFL official statement, you can tell this is bad. Hardy's case was dismissed, largely because Holder did not want to participate, but the NFL conducted its own investigation and found "sufficient credible evidence" that Hardy did the things he stood accused of, which, just so we are clear, include throwing her around, choking her, telling her he would kill her, and generally making her so distraught that she finally said "Do it. Kill me." Excessive, to say the least.Where were we? Oh, right! Florio. Leave it to the man whose site is responsible for making an entire career out of parodying morons to find a way to fault the NFL for punishing Hardy too much. It's like he is trying to prove he's not a stooge by criticizing the NFL and went about it in the worst possible way ever."violated the Personal Conduct Policy by using physical force against Nicole Holder in at least four instances. First, he used physical force against her which caused her to land in a bathtub. Second, he used physical force against her which caused her to land on a futon that was covered with at least four semi-automatic rifles.
Third, he used physical force against her by placing his hands around Ms. Holder's neck and applying enough pressure to leave visible marks. And fourth, he used physical force to shove Ms. Holder against a wall in his apartment's entry hallway. "