For better or worse, NFL players stick together.
A lot of the time, that can be a good thing. They tend to avoid confronting each other about poor plays and decisions on the field. They know how it feels, and they know that the player who isn’t playing up to his standards is the one who feels the worst. Even though it affects them more than the fans, they are much more forgiving. They know they can rely on their teammates to prop them up when something goes wrong.
Most consider themselves part of a brotherhood.
The same holds true off the field. Players won’t turn on each other at the first sign of controversy. Even players on different teams tend to avoid commenting on others’ legal and personal troubles. This, too, can be a good thing. They avoid rushing to judgment and wait for all of the facts to come out.
That is how most people wish they would handle controversy, but it can be tempting to come to an unfair conclusion. Media coverage is most popular when it focuses on the negatives, which can cause us to rush assessments of bad-looking situations. Players tend to avoid that. That is a good thing.
It takes a whole lot to break NFL players’ loyalty to each other in general. It takes much more to break the loyalty between two teammates.
“His effort, his basic aggressiveness, which is an absolute must to play the game and play the position, has just absolutely been something if you have any knowledge or an appreciation for football, when he talks you listen,” Jerry Jones said.
The player Jones describes doesn’t sound like one whom a former teammate would shun publicly.
It is.
The person good ol’ Jerry is talking about is Greg Hardy.
Last November, Deadspin investigated the story of Nicole Holder, Greg Hardy’s victim of domestic violence. The evidence is thoroughly damning, but Holder disappeared before Hardy’s trial. Legally, that left Hardy off the hook.
But no one on Earth could possibly look at all of the evidence and think Hardy is anything but an abusive, horrible scumbag.
Except from Hardy himself.
Jerry had the audacity to call this unapologetic degenerate “one of the real leaders on [the Cowboys].”
Fortunately, Steve Smith isn’t afraid to speak his mind. He isn’t afraid to condemn his teammate for four years in Carolina. He wasn’t afraid to break that bond to talk about a man who doesn’t deserve to be free, much less play on the gridiron on Sundays.
https://twitter.com/89SteveSmith/status/717080608564985856
“So I guess she Tripped on the carpet or something… my mom is a Survivor [of domestic violence] and I am advocate against [domestic violence],” Smith said.
Thank you, Steve Smith, for calling him out.
Sure, fans and media have done so often. That was a given. A public comment from a player, however, tells much more about just how bad he is. It means more for the reputation of the player.
If you consider that and his combative stint in Dallas, you have a profile of a player who does more harm than good for your team.
Unless a general manager wants to commit public relations and locker room suicide, no NFL team will even sniff him again.
NOTE: If you’re interested in listening to Hardy try to talk his way out of this one, the full interview will be on ESPN’s NFL Live Tuesday at 2:30PM.
