When a Dallas Cowboy clocks someone (allegedly) in a bar you're dang right that's going to make headlines, just like we also make headlines for all the reasons I mentioned above. Good or bad, the Cowboys draw attention and ratings. You can't have it both ways.
If you're supposedly a responsible and professional sports journalist and the company you work for is supposedly a responsible and professional sports journalism media entity...there's a double standard when you plaster a fight that allegedly happen and struggle to make a mere mention of somebody who was actually arrested for something.
Just like it's a double standard to claim that there is a '
tape 10 times worse than the Ray Rice tape' for Dez and there is nothing to be found, but that same media entity issues an apology and retraction to the Patriots for allegedly cheating in the 2001 Super Bowl against the Rams (which even Matt Walsh later stated that they did see some of the plays from the Rams practice and reported them to the coaching staff).
"Having it both ways" when it comes to attention is a bit of a moot point. It would be like saying that celebrities and their popularity should be followed around everywhere they go because '
it comes with the territory.' The fact is that it doesn't come with the territory. Attention is one thing...outright lying, not checking your sources is another thing. And being unafraid to apologize to the Patriots while never retracting a very harmful story that had no merit or validity points to a massive double standard that goes beyond the fame of the Cowboys because the Patriots are more recognizable than Dez Bryant.
Don't forget Hardy was also different from others with the way everything went down and the victim "disappearing" after he was initially found guilty by a judge.
And don't forget that Hardy's arrest and conviction was
expunged from his record because the newest DA said that he didn't feel comfortable with bringing the case to trial in large part due to the plaintiff's contradictory testimony to what she told police at the scene and what evidence the police had (like her fleeing from the cops when they showed up).
The response to this was that Hardy must've paid off his ex-gf and not mentioning the fact that she may have disappeared in fear of having to answer for those contradictions and thus potentially perjuring herself.
Nobody complained that much about the Bears signing Ray McDonald (hell, he didn't even get a suspension) or Aldon Smith signing with the Raiders after the crime sprees he had been on. Nobody questioned the Niners who employed both McDonald and Smith and are one of the most popular teams in the NFL. Nope, just business as usual until the Cowboys signed Hardy and then all hell broke loose even though Hardy called 911 on his ex-gf and his ex-gf admitted to being drunk and high on coke at the time and she fled the police and was also begging Hardy to hang up on 911 because she didn't want to go to jail. But hey, she's a woman and he's a player that could have potentially helped the Cowboys...so let's convict the guy and condemn him from society.
Something tells me if Hardy signed with the Eagles he would be '
misunderstood' and there would be '
more to the story than meets the eye' coming from the media.
And that something is that is what the media did with Mike Vick when he signed with the Eagles as he '
served his time' and the media even stood up for him when Vick WANTED TO GET DOGS AS PETS.
We all now know Brown was a POS but I honestly don't know how much information the NFL had on him prior to him admitting what he did. I know the NFL was investigating him and the chief of police where the charges were filed wouldn't release crucial information until later in the investigation.
I have a hard time taking the NFL's word on things when I had heard, from a decent source, that there was a tape of Ray Rice knocking out his fiance and dragging her out of the elevator and it being as brutal as it was later revealed to be. Yet, Goodell and company somehow had no knowledge of this video and had no way of obtaining the video (despite the AC police saying that was a flat out lie).
The Giants knew about Brown and the NFL knew what was going on. If Brown was a Cowboy, he wouldn't get a 1-game suspension.
YR
