It’s not a “hot take” to say that Greg Hardy is a horrible, disgusting human being. It’s certainly not a #taek to say that Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones is a bad guy either for how he, and his organization have handled Hardy in 2015. A couple weeks ago, NFL on FOX’s Terry Bradshaw LIT IN to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys regarding this very topic.
Today, it was the NFL on CBS’ turn.
BILL COWHER: “We’ve seen some of these outbursts at times between player-to-player, position coach-to-coach. But when you go into a huddle like that, the thing that bothered me the most was that Jason Garrett did not intervene. When he doesn’t intervene and he watches that, my perception is one of two things: either he’s afraid of Greg Hardy or afraid to go against Jerry Jones.”
“Greg Hardy has his own agenda. And until someone calls him on it, it’s not going to change. He has no respect for authority. And for you to sit here and call him a leader, what kind of message are you sending your team?“
TONY GONZALEZ: “Yes I agree, it makes no sense. You can look at it from two perspectives as a player. I look at the young guy, the ‘young Tony,’ if I was a teammate with him, I would be looking at that and saying, ‘I guess it’s okay to get in the coach’s face. I guess it’s okay to yell at my teammates on the sideline.’
“But as an older guy in the league, if that happened I would look at it and roll my eyes at the way it was handled with Jerry Jones coming out and rewarding him saying we’re going to reward this type of behavior? It makes no sense. I think, right now, overall they handled the situation very poorly. They need to go in there and get it right.”
BART SCOTT: “You’re talking about perspective. Greg Hardy has no perspective. He has to understand the situation he’s in. They’re leasing with an option to buy. He’s on a week to week contract. And where’s the leadership from the teammates? Where are the teammates getting up in his face?…When I was a member of the Baltimore Ravens, we had a guy disrespect the guy that makes our omelets.”
“The entire defense went up to him and said, ‘If you ever disrespect him again…As a matter of fact, you go apologize right now.’ Where’s that leadership to step up? Is everybody in that building afraid of Greg Hardy? Somebody has to hold him accountable.”
BOOMER ESIASON: “I think Jason Garrett has the hardest job in all of this. He lost his quarterback. He lost his wide receiver. Some people thought they were going to make a trip to the Super Bowl. Jerry Jones led all the fans to think that’s what he was expecting and now comes this. I think he is just in an impossible situation.”
“So I’m going to take him out of the equation. The first thing that I would have done had I been the owner, I wouldn’t have said hey, we’re thinking about extending him a new contract. I would have said he’s going to sit down and he’s going to be suspended. I would’ve suspended him immediately without pay for conduct detrimental to the team. There is no calling for that on the sideline.”
JIM ROME: “Is anybody truly shocked by how the Cowboys are handling Greg Hardy? Of course they don’t care he put his hands on an assistant coach. They apparently didn’t care that he put his hands on a woman or they would not have signed him in the first place.Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett are enabling him and encouraging Hardy. And it’s embarrassing.”
“Instead of talking about suspending him, they’re talking about extending him. Why stop there, when Hardy knocks out a teammate or coach in the coming weeks, just rip the C off Jason Witten‘s jersey and make Hardy a captain. They could not have handled this any worse. One of the league’s worst guys is one of Jerry Jones’ favorite players.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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