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He will help them win games. He's fast, vicious and nasty. At times, he's simply unblockable. Yes, the Cowboys win on the field with this deal, which they announced Wednesday. Off of it, they are losers for signing him.
I don't ever want to hear the Cowboys say they care about women fans. Or about doing the right thing.
The Cowboys could have passed. Many teams did. They did because they thought Hardy was a bad guy. Oh, they loved his talent. You don't think the Patriots wanted Hardy? The Seahawks?
The Buccaneers thought about it. They considered it but in the end they did the right thing. Jason Licht, the team's general manager, did something highly unusual. He talked publicly about his concern over Hardy's past and how that past was the reason why they said thanks convicted woman beater but no thanks.
"At the end of the day," Licht told Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, "we didn't feel good about it."
There are teams that have a conscious.
The Buccaneers did the right thing. That's clear. What's also clear is Dallas sold its soul to win. And the Cowboys will win. Hardy is the kind of player who can, almost single-handedly, transform Dallas from a playoff team to a Super Bowl winner. He's that good. He is. The three NFC favorites to reach the Super Bowl this season, pre-Hardy, were Seattle, Green Bay and Dallas, in that order.
Hardy changes that. He moves the Cowboys past the Packers and an inch behind the Seahawks.
The Cowboys know how Hardy can transform them, and that's why they are taking this risk, selling a piece of themselves.
"The Cowboys have moved from the flea market to the pawn shop," tweeted longtime Cowboys writer Clarence Hill. "There is quality merchandise at the pawn shop. Its also there for a reason."
The NFL has said it no longer wants woman beaters in its league. "Domestic violence and sexual assault are wrong," Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to all 32 teams in August. "They are illegal. They are never acceptable and have no place in the NFL under any circumstances."
No place in the NFL under any circumstances.
Goodell also wrote in that letter, clearly referencing his initial and faulty Ray Rice decision: "My disciplinary decision led the public to question our sincerity, our commitment, and whether we understood the toll that domestic violence inflicts on so many families. I take responsibility both for the decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly reflect our values. I didn't get it right. Simply put, we have to do better. And we will."
Goodell will soon likely punish Hardy, maybe six games, and while I'm convinced Goodell now gets it, some of his teams clearly still do not. And that's the problem the NFL faces. The league office wants to send a message that it will take domestic violence issues serious. Yet it's also clear that individual teams not only aren't getting that message. They truly don't give a crap.
The Cowboys only care about this: Last year, the team's three sack leaders combined for 14 total sacks. In 2013, while in Carolina, Hardy alone had 15 sacks.
This is where a reminder is needed of what exactly the Cowboys are getting. (One place to find out more is from the Charlotte Observer timeline.) On May 13, Hardy was arrested and charged with assaulting and threatening to kill his former girlfriend, Nicole Holder.
Holder testified in court that Hardy hit her and knocked her into a wall. He then, she said, threw her in the bathtub, and later threw her onto a futon that had guns on it.
Holder testified that Hardy "used both hands to strangle me. He looked me in my eyes and said, 'I'm going to kill you.' "
"Just do it. Kill me," she testified she told Hardy.
A North Carolina judge found Hardy guilty. A quirk in North Carolina law allowed Hardy to appeal the verdict and he did and—surprise—the victim could not be found so charges were dropped.
We all know what happened there, don't we?
This, in italics, is what I get on Twitter whenever I write on Hardy, and this is what I have to say on each remark:
1. She didn't have any marks on her? A judge believed her testimony and you weren't in court.
2. He was found innocent. I get that all the time. He was found guilty.
3. He deserves a second chance? That's not an unfair point. But many teams decided he didn't.
4. Get off your high horse. My steed is on low ground.
5. That's some hot take, Mike. Yes, domestic violence is sizzling.
There is good news with this. The Buccaneers passed on Hardy. In fact, many teams did. The market was depressed. Not invisible. But depressed.
I also believe the NFL purposely held off on announcing any Hardy punishment to keep that market depressed. Good for the NFL.
On the field, the Cowboys got better. They were already Super Bowl contenders. Now, some will see them as favorites.
On the field, winners. Off of it, the Cowboys sold a piece of themselves. A piece of their soul. And that's just sad.
Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.
Read more Dallas Cowboys news on BleacherReport.com
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