Today's reaction to the Hardy photos basically tells a victim her credibility is wholly dependent on how much she bruises. @nickpwing
— Kavitha A. Davidson (@kavithadavidson) November 6, 2015Thanks to a Deadspin investigation that included photos of a bruised and beaten Nicole Holder, people are finally outraged by Greg Hardy’s alleged domestic violence. Sportscasters are suddenly up in arms over the fact he’s still on the Dallas Cowboys. The public is disgusted that a man could do such a thing. Players are calling the situation a joke. The problem is, most people weren’t saying this kind of thing when the news first broke. Once again, it took visual evidence to generate outcry over domestic violence, and, in turn, pressure the powers that be to enact change. But it shouldn’t have taken photos to get people mad anymore. People should understand domestic abuse without having it shoved in their faces. One man who understands just how powerful an image of violence can be said so on Sunday morning.
I’ve found the reaction to the pictures obtained by Deaspin to be interesting. In the wake of the Ray Rice case, where significant visual evidence clearly demonstrated beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt that he savagely beat his then- girlfriend (now wife) in an elevator, reaction was swift and the court of public opinion swiftly rendered a ruling. Rice lost his job and his career. The likelihood that he’ll every carry a football in the NFL again is roughly the same as my winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
What would have happened if Rice had done the same thing minus the damning video footage? Without the visual evidence, you very likely would have had something similar to the Greg Hardy case. Hardy savagely beat his girlfriend, was cut loose by the Carolina Panthers and quickly signed by the Dallas Cowboys. The difference in the two cases was that Hardy wasn’t caught in the act on video, so the horrific nature of his actions could be- and has been- soft-pedaled and even denied by many who seemed far more concerned with football than the well-being of his girlfriend, whom Hardy beat brutally.
Deadspin’s release of photos of a beaten and bruised Nicole Holder finally put the focus where it should have been all along: on Greg Hardy’s actions. It should also force us as a society to look at how we treat victims vis a vis their attackers. In this case, there’s little doubt but that collectively we’ve given far more weight to Hardy’s talents and exploits on the football field than to Nicole Holder’s well-being. The same holds true for many well-known abusers. If that isn’t an indictment of our priorities and proof of our collective lack of humanity and compassion, I don’t know what would be.
— jawn (@jawnes12) November 8, 2015
The Dallas Cowboys saw the police report from the night of Hardy’s abuse and the court transcripts from his bench trial, which convicted him of assaulting Holder. But the team signed Hardy last offseason anyway, and then defiantly stood by their star pass rusher even after he showed zero remorse for his violence. (Hardy tweeted an apology of sorts on Saturday to “express regret for what happened in the past.”)
Fellow NFL players had remained mum on Hardy, content to watch their union fight to reduce Hardy’s initial 10-game suspension for beating Holder to 4 games. Last month, ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith tweeted his support for the Cowboys’ continued employment of Hardy. The story has changed now. After seeing the photos, Smith flip-flopped, calling for the Cowboys to cut Hardy on Sunday. Smith, a professional and influential journalist, shouldn’t have needed photo evidence to inform his feelings about the Hardy situation. The evidence was already there.
Greg Hardy is a beast on the football field; of that there’s no doubt. There can also be little doubt that he, at least insofar as he’s demonstrated publicly, is an objectionable example of humanity. Aggression, brute force, and complete lack of remorse may be assets when defending against a team facing third and seven, but off the field those qualities make for a damned poor human being.
Part of the problem, of course, is on us. We treat football players- large, talented, strong, athletic, and intensely violent men- as special. By the time a player reaches the NFL, they almost without exception have been given preferential treatment and regarded as someone above the rules and expectations that apply to lesser mortals. We value football players for their predilection for brutality in a game George Will once called “violence punctuated by committee meetings.” We reward them for their ability to dish out and withstand violence and physical punishment few mere mortals could absorb. We also expect players to flip a switch once they come off the field…and most are able to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate violence and aggression. Then there are those, like Greg Hardy, who appear incapable of leaving their predisposition for violence and mayhem on the football field. They’re unable to “flip the switch” that allows them to switch from a beast on the field to a normal, nonviolent person off it.
We cannot reward men for prodigious acts of violence and mayhem on the football field and them claim surprise when they carry that aggression over into their life off the field. Nor should we ignore it when they abuse the women in their lives. No one deserves to be the target of physical violence, to live in fear of the person they love. Simply put, love shouldn’t leave physical scars…and we need to stop enabling those who inflict them merely because they entertain us.
Domestic violence has no place in the NFL- or anywhere else in life. The NFL, “violence punctuated by committee meetings” though it may be, needs to set an example and make it clear that abusers will have no place in football. Other professional sports leagues need to do the same, because right or wrong, athletes set the example for men in this country. Until it’s made clear that domestic violence has no place and won’t be tolerated- no exceptions- people like Greg Hardy will always be enable by people like Jerry Jones.
Enough is enough. This needs to stop. NOW.
