RETRO RELAPSE is a series of older articles from various places where I used to write before Talking Pulp.
*Written in 2015.
Fuck Jerry Jones. Fuck his Dallas Cowboys. Fuck the fucking NFL too.
I’m sick of this bullshit.
While I do feel bad for the Cowboys fans who want Greg Hardy (and Jerry Jones) gone for good, I have no respect or kind words for the fans who support the way their beloved football club is ran.
Truthfully, if I was a Cowboys fan, I would have either denounced the organization, at this point, or be banding together with other Cowboys fans that want to see their team no longer represent reprehensible shit.
But we live in a world where sports is a religion and football is God. There are sick people out there who don’t seem to understand that life is rich with so many other things and at the end of the day, all of this sports stuff is just a game anyway.
This Greg Hardy situation is disturbing and just adds to the pile of garbage that is the Dallas Cowboys’ and the NFL’s image. If football is God, Jerry Jones is the Antichrist – enchanting cultish fans with his evil deeds that are paraded around as noble actions for the greater good. The culture of the NFL has become a cancer to American culture.
Greg Hardy is a coward. He beats women. He beats them to a pulp. While he has seemingly gotten away from it from a legal standpoint and while the Cowboys claim to not have seen the photos of Hardy’s victim, giving this guy a shot on a team that coins itself as “America’s Team” is beyond insane. It goes to show how out of touch Jerry Jones is with reality. It proves that he has no morals and is willing to sign all the scum of the Earth to contracts, if it somehow helps the Cowboys win.
Jerry Jones is enabling a horrible person and rewarding them in the process.
Since that time, Hardy has gotten into a physical altercation with the Cowboys’ special teams coach and star wide receiver Dez Bryant. That should be grounds for his firing or at the very least, a hefty suspension handed out by the organization. Did the Cowboys do anything? No. Did they even fine him? Fuck no.
So Jerry Jones will let his own employees be assaulted by this maniac. I guess winning is that important. Especially when your star quarterback Tony Romo is missing for half the season and you’re most likely not going to come anywhere near the playoffs in a season that is already halfway over. The Dallas Cowboys are currently 2-6.
The thing is, Greg Hardy hasn’t even proven himself to be that great this season. He’s not an uber-talented megastar that the Cowboys should feel that they need to fight for and justify their actions over. Does he contribute? Sure. Can they live without him? Again, they’re 2-6!
Jerry Jones claims he was giving Greg Hardy a “second chance” and a “fresh start”. I’m sorry, but it is a little too soon for second chances. He has shown that he can’t control his rage since being given a fresh start and there are no signs that he’s going to change.
But this is that same Jerry Jones that allowed a bunch of players from his successful ’90s team continue to be employed after a bunch of criminal activity, which saw some of them do real prison time. Jones only cares about the bottom line: money. I don’t think he even cares about winning, other than winning leads to more money. Jerry Jones is the vile, sinister, evil businessman that is the epitome of every liberal college kid’s greatest fear.
Hey woman-beating Ray Rice is available and the Cowboys need a running-back. Why not give him a “second chance” and a “fresh start”, Jerry? If you’re going to go full Palpatine, embrace it.
Realistically, the National Football League is in a tough position, as Greg Hardy pretty much got away with beating up a woman. Even though there is a mountain of evidence against him, I understand their inability to not kick his ass out of the league. And the only reason he is free to walk around today, is because the victim didn’t defend herself in court. She wasn’t there. That certainly makes me wonder what kind of shit went down to stop her from following through.
But despite the legal outcome, the NFL needs to change. It needs to take these things a lot more seriously. Roger Goodell needs to not pussyfoot around these issues and lay down the law. The NFL cannot have tolerance for domestic violence or any violence, whatsoever. We have Neanderthals running wild, ruining the game and the League’s image. Their behavior proves they have no respect for themselves, their loved ones or the heritage and history of the National Football League – the place where they ply their trade. Well, the NFL shouldn’t respect them either. It’s time for some tough love. Sometimes you’ve got to kick the kid out of the house.
The NFL is a business. If an employee of any other company put a woman in the hospital, more often than not, that employee wouldn’t have a job. If that employee remained employed and people knew about it, that company would be in a lot of hot water, publicly. And what company is under a bigger microscope these days than the NFL?
Team owners and the League, need to get together and write a constitution. One that serves as a code of conduct that their employees must obey while employed. One that makes the League and team owners accountable and responsible for that player’s employment status if they can’t follow the rules. Every other company, especially ones the size of the NFL, has this.
Sure, I believe in second chances. But not immediate second chances. Players like Greg Hardy need to get help and help takes time. They need to show that they aren’t going to do these horrible things again. They need a good amount of time off to think about their situation and how they got there. Look at how long Michael Vick was out of the League after the dog fighting scandal. Did he eventually deserve a second chance? It’s debatable but I say “yes”.
The thing is, people make mistakes and some are haunted by those mistakes to the point that they change for the better and deserve a chance at redemption. Greg Hardy hasn’t shown that he deserves anything. At least not in the immediate-to-near future. He hasn’t even apologized.
Greg Hardy deserves prison time. Greg Hardy doesn’t deserve a multi-million dollar job.
But we can all thank Jerry Jones for that.
Talking Pulp 