Cowboys 'Tolerance' Built Into Hardy's Unusual Contract
By Mike Fisher | @fishsports
IRVING (CBSDFW.COM) - Greg Hardy's new one-year contract with the Cowboys brings with it a cap hit of a modest $3.2 million. This is good. If Dallas decides Hardy is such a malevolent force that he doesn't deserve this job, there is no guaranteed money so they can cut him with no cap penalty. This is better.
But if he plays at a Pro Bowl level, as the 26-year-old did two seasons ago in Carolina? Dallas could be paying Hardy $13.116 million.
And that will be tolerable.
Hardy represents a controversial risk because of his domestic violence case. If not for that, dozens of teams would've been fighting to give him $13 mil a year with a standard deal. Instead, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is left to explain.
"A thorough background review of him, involving many elements of our organization, has been ongoing for the last few weeks," Jones said of Hardy. "Obviously, a great deal of our study was dedicated to the issue of domestic violence, and the recent events that associated Greg with that issue. We know that Greg's status remains under review by the National Football League. Our organization understands the very serious nature of domestic violence in our society and in our league. We know that Greg has a firm understanding of those issues as well."
Possible game suspensions for 2015 play a role in this contract structure. Hardy will be paid $750,000 in base salary, assuming he's on the team. He's in line get "workout bonuses'' of $1,311,116 for offseason participating. He'll get paid specifically for sacks: eight sacks earn Hardy $500,000… 10 sacks equal $1 million… 12 sacks equal $1.4 mil… 14 or more sacks equal it to $1,804,440.
Those "performance bonuses" are, again, well worth Dallas' money and don't have cap impact until season's end. But there's also a series of "roster bonuses" worth $578,125 for every game that he is on the active roster. If Hardy somehow avoids suspension completely, this amount will grow to $9.25 million for the season… and if you combine that with the attendance and the sacks, you get Hardy to $13.116 million.
At that point, it will no longer be a "cheap" contract. But it will still be a risk-free contract and it will still be, in terms of on-field production and Dallas being pushed by talent to contention… worth it.