Mark Cuban supports Dallas Cowboys signing of Greg Hardy
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban weighs in on the controversial signing of Greg Hardy by the Dallas Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys generated headlines for the wrong reasons earlier this week when they signed former Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy to a one-year deal.
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Hardy spend all but one game last season on the commissioner’s exempt list after a judge found him guilty of assaulting and threatening to kill his then-girlfriend.
He played on the Panthers franchise tag offer last season after recording a career-high 15 sacks in 2013 but the team let him walk in free agency after determining his off-the-field behavior was too much of a black eye and didn’t want to employ a domestic abuser.
The criticism poured in from local sportscasters to the mayor of Dallas who had plenty of ammunition to fire away at Cowboys owner and general manager, Jerry Jones and the team for welcoming a person found guilty by a judge of threatening to kill his girlfriend.
Dallas Mavericks owner thinks the Cowboys could have handled the situation better but believes in giving players second chances.
“I think they handled it wrong publicly … (but) you can’t just throw people away,” Cuban told the Dallas Morning News. “What are you going to say about Greg Hardy? You can’t ever get a job?”
That is a fair point. He has a right to work and get a job and playing in the NFL is where he has made his career, but at the same time playing in the league is a privilege, not a right. Nevertheless, Cuban is hopeful someone will take responsibility here and work with Hardy and make sure what he did never happens again.
“If a guy is an alcoholic, we’ll work with him,” Cuban said. “If he’s a drug-addict, we’ll work with him. If a guy is in a hit-and-run accident, we’ll work with him. If a guy has domestic abuse (problems), some people want to throw him away. And you can’t throw your mistakes to the curb. At some point, somebody’s got to take responsibility for him.
“The question is, is he working with a counselor? Is he going through support programs? Is there somebody there, if he’s got a significant other, if they’re working with them? And making sure he really is rehabbing himself.”
The Cowboys have said they did their research on Hardy, but they didn’t endear themselves to the public when it was interpreted that Hardy won’t screw up again because he won’t get paid. Because money is the greatest motivator and is capable of rehabbing behavioral problems all the time?
In any event, Cuban is mostly right here. People should get second chances when they work to right their wrongs and they put themselves in a position to deserve the second chance. The Cowboys signing Hardy looks like a team signing a player who can help them win and they get them on the cheap.
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