Hardy Skips As Cowboys Win
By Mike Fisher | @FishSports
ARLINGTON (105.3 THE FAN) - Greg Hardy's absence from Thursday night's Dallas Cowboys preseason win had nothing to do with Tom Brady or Roger Goodell or federal judges. The All-Pro defense end was away from the team because his girlfriend is having a baby … and that is, of course, eventful enough.
But there may be more events to come.
Dallas' 21-14 win over the visiting Texans is important not because of the final score but because of the jobs gained and lost by Hardy's teammates. Defensive line mates Davon Coleman, Ken Bishop and Ryan Russell fared well. So did defensive back Corey White (with a pick-six), receiver/returner Lucky Whitehead, veteran linebacker Jasper Brinkley (on the bubble despite some guaranteed salary) and practice-squad-candidate running backs Ben Malena and Gus Johnson.
Oh, and QB Jameill Showers may have helped himself by not playing at all. Dallas opted to let Dustin Vaughan start and finish the win, a sign that there are other (practice-squad?) plans for Showers ahead of Vaughan.
Meanwhile, most of the premium talent spend the night on the sideline while Hardy spent his away from the team, which is his fate for the next four weeks now while contemplating an appeal of the four-game suspension handed him to open the season due to violation of the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy (a domestic-violence incident when he was with Carolina). He may find motivation in Thursday's news that New England star QB Tom Brady won his court case, a judge ruling that Brady's "DeflateGate'' suspension shrink from four games to no games at all.
As it stands, the suspension of the former Hardy begins now, as he will not be allowed to work out at Valley Ranch, be in contact with the team, or play until Week 5 - when the Cowboys play host to Brady's Patriots.
Unless he decides to appeal … which figures to be a major NFL event.
(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)