Might Bucs Get A Gift From Goodell?
July 16th, 2014
Stinking Panthers DT Greg Hardy, who is appealing his guilty verdict for slapping around his girlfriend, should be suspended for the Bucs opener if there is a just world.
Joe knows just the mere mention of NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell makes Bucs fans grind their teeth enough to alarm their dentists. Tampa Bay faithful may loathe Goodell more than Raheem Morris.
Just look at the cash Goodell, indirectly, has cost safety Dashon Goldson. Geez, we could have all retired on the bread that Goldson lost to the NFL in fines.
And it was Goodell, under the guise of player safety, who has all but taken the physical game out of the NFL, a very reason the league is widly popular. If folks wanted to see flag football, there would be leagues set up by national sports networks so they could fill their endless hours of empty programming.
Now Joe thought of something last night that may endear Bucs fans to Goodell. Recently, Greg Hardy was involved in a ugly hassle involving a sordid affair that involves, allegedly, violence and narcotics, per the Charlotte Observer. Hardy was found guilty of assault and threatening to kill his girlfriend, said Mecklenburg District Judge Becky Thorne Tin. Real prince of a guy, this Hardy, huh?
The case against Hardy, however, started in late morning and ended at 9 p.m. It drew a dozen witnesses and featured hour after hour of testimony into the darker side of youth, beauty and celebrity, with drugs, sex and violence playing key roles in the narrative.
Hardy, [Nicole] Holder said, flung her from the bed, threw her into a bathtub, then tossed her on a futon covered with rifles. Holder said Hardy ripped a necklace he had given her off her neck, threw it into a toilet and slammed the lid on her arm when she tried to fish it out. The 6-foot-4, 265-pound Hardy dragged her by the hair room to room, she said, before putting his hands around her throat.
“He looked me in my eyes and he told me he was going to kill me,” said Holder, 24, who said she used to live with Hardy. I was so scared I wanted to die. When he loosened his grip slightly, I said, ‘Just do it. Kill me.’ ” Later, as Holder said she was held by her former boyfriend’s personal assistant, she said Hardy made the 911 call, showed her the phone, and said, “Run, little girl. You’re going to jail.”
Surely one would hope Hardy is looking at a lengthy suspension from Goodell.
And guess who the Stinking Panthers play the first week of the season? Yup. The Bucs. A suspension crossed Joe’s mind and it was reinforced by the “Custodian of Canton,” eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.
Don’t think the Bucs would mind very much if Roger Goodell suspends Greg Hardy for at least the opening game at steamy Raymond James Stadium
— Ira Kaufman (@IKaufmanTBO) July 16, 2014
It’s a shame Hardy hasn’t been suspended already. Beating up a woman or hitting a pass receiver who is wearing a helmet and shoulder pads a little too hard, you tell Joe which is worse? Sadly, it’s hitting a receiver too hard because threats of multi-million dollar lawsuits hang over the heads of NFL owners.
Joe is not nearly as anti-Goodell as many fans. If Goodell has a moral bone in his body, then Hardy shouldn’t see a football field without paying for quite a while.
The result, from the Bucs perspective, is that an offensive line with plenty of questions marks might get a break.
Still, Joe feels hollow writing that. Worrying about a suspect offensive line pales in comparison to some woman who got slapped around by a guy big enough to break her in half.
Allegedly.
July 16th, 2014 at 2:17 pm
The odds of us winning should double with him out of the picture!
July 16th, 2014 at 2:18 pm
The Bucs fear no man! If he’s there we block him. If not, we block the next guy. If we have to go through the season hoping for the other team’s misfortune in order to win, then god help us. The Bucs do not want
to win like that. Neither do I!
July 16th, 2014 at 2:20 pm
I kept up with the trial throughout the day and the judge had good reason to deem him guilty. It’s a shame that the jury trial may just stretch this thing out longer.
Joe, if Hardy is a free agent next offseason and the jury trial doesn’t take place until next offseason, will the 2015 jury trial diminish his value even that much more? Do you think it would be smart for Hardy to take the punishment now and give teams time to forget about this a little prior to the 2015 offseason?
July 16th, 2014 at 2:30 pm
Goodell will wait to suspend Hardy after our first game, and then the other two teams in our division will get to play the Panthers without Hardy.
July 16th, 2014 at 2:34 pm
Wasn’t Hardy on a lot of Bucs Fans’ Wish List?
Maybe the Bucs knew this and did NOT go after him???
July 16th, 2014 at 2:39 pm
It should! Dude could be serving time. Kind of hard to be a productive football player when you are locked in a state-owned cage.
It would be a smart move, but sometimes, ego gets in the way of common sense.
July 16th, 2014 at 2:41 pm
I want the bucs best to best the panthers best.
July 16th, 2014 at 2:44 pm
It seems like every year we either sweep Carolina or they sweep us. Based on their off season I say we sweep them this year. Even if we only won 6 or 8 games this year (which I hope is much more north of that). I think we could sweep Atlanta and the Panthers this year with that being 4 of our wins.
@Mumbles I 2nd that. I’m not sure what our record will be when its all said and done but if you want to be the best you have to beat the best.
July 16th, 2014 at 2:54 pm
I would cut him if I was the panthers
July 16th, 2014 at 2:59 pm
I wouldn’t get my hopes up for a quick suspension. They will appeal it, drag it out for months and months. He may not get disciplined by Godell until 2015′. The Panthers are new darling team as well, so don’t hold your breath.
July 16th, 2014 at 3:13 pm
He didn’t ‘allegedly’ do this, Joe. SMH. He was found guilty. I’m SO glad the Panthers franchised this guy, so we didn’t have a chance to court him. Pun intended.
July 16th, 2014 at 3:17 pm
i hope he play’s and we still kick there butts! No excuses!I want the best of every team lets see who we really are.
July 16th, 2014 at 3:33 pm
From what I’ve heard of her testimony, it’s highly highly suspect. Apparently she wasn’t so much as bruised. Making her story….suspicious? To say the least. Not that I’m complaining if he were to miss some time..
July 16th, 2014 at 3:44 pm
I don’t know the legal precedence (as if Goodell cares), but Hardy’s been ‘convicted’. The fact that he is appealing does not necessarily have the same legal ramifications, in the private sector(NFL). I would bet money, though, that if Goodell tries to ‘punish’ him before the appeal, Hardy’s agent will have a lawyer call Goodell with a recommendation of ‘wait and see’.
I hope he plays so there will be no excuses in the outcome.
July 16th, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Word is he now gets a trial with a jury so this may not be resolved by the first game which could mean he ends up playing. No justice.
July 16th, 2014 at 3:56 pm
Hawk. that’s just it. If his attorney has grounds to appeal, then Goodell has to insure the standing verdict is upheld. To not admit guilt and then lose the appeal should not play well with the league.
July 16th, 2014 at 4:00 pm
I’m pretty sure if he loses the appeal that he can be resentenced too.
July 16th, 2014 at 4:06 pm
you tell Joe which is worse?
Any man…even a normal sized human, much less a giant like Hardy, who puts his hands on a woman, is human excrement. Again as someone who hid under a bed while my old man beat the hell out of my mom I hope Greg Hardy blows his freaking knee out ASAP and is out of the league.
Any man who puts his hands on a woman deserves the worst possible fate. Hardy is the ultimate coward!!!!
July 16th, 2014 at 4:14 pm
Yeah, and maybe if we are lucky all of the other teams will have bad accidents or their players will get suspended so then WE WILL BE THE BEST!! Seriously? I want to see the best compete. I do not want the Bucs to be winners by default. I find it of low character to wish a person’s demise simply so that the Bucs can win a game.
And on the subject of him and Holder, his ex-girlfriend, you have got to be kidding me with all of this white knight crap. She is by no means innocent in all of this and most likely is the instigator if not the lone advocate of violence in this situation. She admitted to doing drugs that night and hitting Hardy. There are even witnesses that claimed she made threats to him before all of this happened.
It sickens me to see men attack other men on behalf of women. A woman can beat on a man all day (see the thousands of movies and commercials showing women slapping and hitting men. Or see the video evidence of Jay Z getting hit in an elevator by a woman) and there are no consequences. Let a man even think about touching a woman and white knights spring up everywhere calling for his head. Hell, even though women are less than 20% of the victims of violence in America, they are still treated as a protected class. Hell, there is a whole section of the law, VAWA, which treats women as special and protected. I have had enough of seeing men attacked like this over a woman’s claims.
And who cares? Seriously. I want to watch athletes play football, not choir boys play flag ballet. I do not care if these guys kick puppies in their off time as long as I get to see a good game on Sunday. Maybe we should start worrying about whether or not they go to church? How about we make sure they call their mothers. And while we are at it, why not inspect their underwear before game day to make sure it has pink hearts on it. From the way everyone salivates when a player gets into some sort of confrontation with social mores you would think that only church going, law abiding, mother calling, charity giving, high moral character men can play football.
July 16th, 2014 at 4:33 pm
Get real, people. Wins, no matter how they come, are sorely needed right now. Our team does not know what being a winning team is like. They need to build confidence.
Hardy is complete scum and should bekicked out of football. So far as evidence, there will be plenty of circumstancial, and that’s all that is needed.
Thrown in the tub? There will have been visual evidence…a torn curtain, something. Pulled by hair? Her strands will be all over the place. Thrown on the rifles? There would have been gun oil on her skin.
If the investigators did a good job, he’s going to prison.
And, for the record, woman beating tops dog fighting every day of the year.
July 16th, 2014 at 4:35 pm
GMC doesn’t have these problems. Oh and guess what? He does go to church and set an example for kids to follow. NFL players are privileged and have to follow a high set of standards off the field. It’s pretty simple that if you can’t follow their rules then don’t sign their contract. I think anyone that jeopardizes their career in the NFL by placing themselves in compromising situations deserves the punishment they receive as well as public scorn.
July 16th, 2014 at 4:40 pm
@Ralph Phillips
You must be very proud of yourself.
Your calculation of 20%? Most cases go unreported because of fear and threats. So you arean idiot.
And yes…I said that. You have no class, no brain and are a crummy human being. Maybe that makes you angry. Don’t take it out on a woman.
July 16th, 2014 at 4:40 pm
I would rather us play them with him in the game. No excuses.
July 16th, 2014 at 4:43 pm
I’m sure Hardy goes to a church too, that means nothing in regards to personality. GMC is a big baby and Hardy is a punk arse woman beater (allegedly)
I dont see Greg Hardy being the difference between a win or loss anyways, it would be nice if he was suspended for our sake but it’s certainly not going to be the deciding factor.
July 16th, 2014 at 4:54 pm
It always amazes me that high profile athletes get themselves into these situations. If he is guilty (which he was found by the court to be) than I think he deserves a 8-16 game suspension for being a disgusting P.O.S.!! I hate BULLIES!!! Especially when it is a woman who gets bullied! But let’s say that this woman made everything up …she admitted in court to using drugs in Hardy’s presence. As a professional football player who has a HUGE payday coming, you’d think he would have just left and gotten the hell out of there!! I’ll never understand why people put themselves in such terrible situations and then are surprised when bad things happen!
July 16th, 2014 at 5:43 pm
A REAL gift from Goodell would be to remove those stupid rules about hitting. Would make our safeties about 100 percent more valuable.
PS I hate a woman beater and do hope he gets everything that’s coming to him. If he’s suspended for the Bucs game so be it!
July 16th, 2014 at 6:25 pm
GMC may be a big baby off the field, but he is monster on the field. GMC also heart and character in spades. Hardy is a great football player but isn’t half the man that GMC is. I’ll take the gentle giant any day of the week and that the rate rate Gerald is going, the HOF may one day take him as well.
July 16th, 2014 at 7:01 pm
This kind of asshole should be banned from the league. Commit acts of violence and the privilege of earning millions of dollars as an NFL player should be taken away. No chance for reinstatement. Jerks like this need to have consequences for their behavior. Sorry buddy, earning millions of dollars and being famous is a privilege.
July 16th, 2014 at 7:13 pm
Buc Bonzai…..Agree completely with your post about poor Ralph Phillips.
Poor Ralphie must have had his butt kicked by a woman. I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and so that gives me a biased opinion. I admit it.
EVERY one of the men in my extended family…all the Uncles felt free to slap their women around to keep them in line. I’ve certainly seen women TRY to fight back, including my own mother.
I’ve NEVER seen a woman win one of those battles. Perhaps Ralphie is the exception and took up with a real badassss woman.
Now I do concede women have used guns and even knives when guys sleep but really…have we reached that point where we think beating women is OK because some of them dare to fight back.
If Hardy was falsely accused it will come out. Lawrence Phillips clearly was guilty of pulling a woman down a staircase by her hair yet this filth repeatedly got a pass.
BTW this has NOTHING to do with race. I’m white and I grew up with “white trash”. I joke with my mother that we are recovering trash.
Boys who are raised by wife beating fathers turn out one of two ways. They beat their women as well…OR they are so horrified they hope that all wife beaters die painful deaths.
I’ll give Hardy only this benefit of the doubt. Perhaps his father was a woman beater as well….if that’s the case then I hope he gets help!
July 16th, 2014 at 7:18 pm
Two words to tell you what’s going to happen to Hardy:
Ray Rice
He hasn’t been suspended, and that happened months ago. ON CAMERA.
If he’s willing to let that slide, I’m guessing Hardy would’ve had to beat her with a massive meth rock in front of the NFL building while network news crews were broadcasting.
Would’ve been better if he’d been caught taking Adderall. They’d throw the book at him for that. Beating up a woman isn’t nearly as bad as taking something for ADD.
July 16th, 2014 at 7:20 pm
Great insight, Joe. This will confirm a great deal about Goodell. As I’ve said before, this guy cared NOTHING about player safety until he was served in a lawsuit. His reaction, have the official throw a flag on any hard tackle, clean or not. If he suspends him, I’ll apologize but I’ll believe it from this guy when I see it.
July 16th, 2014 at 7:52 pm
@ Bonzai
You are really a self righteous a**#*¥#.
July 16th, 2014 at 7:53 pm
From all that I have read, Ray Rice is going to get suspended. It’s just a matter of for how many games. Seems to me that if Rice gets suspended, then so should Hardy. Don’t see how you could justify not suspending him.
July 16th, 2014 at 7:57 pm
Hawaiian Buc – That the NFL is taking it’s sweet time with Rice is a little disgusting. What’s to talk about? Seriously, it gives the impression that wife and girlfriend beating is less important than performance drug suspensions, which have already been dealt with a month ago.
The the Ravens are perfectly okay with Rice is even more disgusting.
July 16th, 2014 at 8:35 pm
Yeah, there’s a clear difference between the way Goodell handles things now and the way he did a few years ago. Personally, I don’t really care how long they take, as long as there is a real punishment. I can’t imagine either player playing week one, but you never know.
July 16th, 2014 at 9:33 pm
Don’t know enough about the facts to comment but if he appeals and loses he will likely be looking at time inside. It will be interesting to see how he plays this season with trial preperation and possible jail time on his mind all the time. Might not be the force he was last year.
July 16th, 2014 at 11:08 pm
@Tony Clifton
What’s the matter, Ralphie? Trying to create the illusion of unity with another name?
If you think calling an idiot out for supporting women beaters makes me what you claim, you must be warped.
July 16th, 2014 at 11:10 pm
And by the way…a self righteous person is usually someone who speaks the truth regardless of offense. And the people offended are usually the guilty ones.
July 17th, 2014 at 9:32 am
@StPeteBucsFan
Just because you have daddy issues does not mean that all men are evil and all women are angels. Wake up to the real world. Some women are bad people just like some men are bad people. Women lie, steal, rob, murder, assault, rape, abuse, and torture people just like men do.
Remember the Duke Lacrosse case? Yeah, I bet you do. And I bet you were one of the white knights jumping up and down screaming to hang those boys. You probably fell all over yourself to rush to the aid of the poor woman who was raped and beaten by those big bad evil boys. Then come to find out she lied about the whole damn thing. But only after those boys were drug through the mud for months on national tv and ridiculed, berated, ostracized, and mocked by people like you. Because you think that women are more special than men. Where is Crystal Mangum, the Duke rape accuser, at now? In prison. For killing a man. Because SHE was a piece of shit who used white knights like you to ruin people’s lives.
I can point out that men are the victims of most homicides, suicides, violent crimes, false accusations, and imprisonment but since you hate men I know that it makes you happy to hear those things. Even though women beat men half the time in domestic violence, it is people like you, Petey, who make sure they get away with it. Even though women make up over a quarter of arrests it is people like you, Petey, who make sure they do not serve any prison time. That is why 96% of the prison population is men. Women get a slap on the wrist and men get prison.
And if a woman falsely accuses you of rape or assault and you are dragged through the courts as a criminal, think back on this. And when you have children and your wife divorces you, takes the kids, and accuses you of violence to make sure she gets custody and a piece of the $20 billion a year that is transferred from men to women through child support, think back on this. So get off your high horse. Women are no better than men.
July 17th, 2014 at 9:51 am
@BuccaneerBonzai
I was unaware that calling people names on the internet, and on this website especially, is a way to debate. Maybe I should lower myself and start calling you names too. Nah, I think I will just continue to kick your butt with facts.
You claiming that most cases go unreported for fear of harm is not backed up by evidence. Actually, all research show that MEN are the ones who under report abuse by women. Women actually lead in the false accusation category. but, hey, let us not let facts get in the way of a good moral white knight running off of the mouth.
To top it off, in instances of murder, which cannot be unreported, men make up 80% of homicide victims. I will do the math since it appears that may be difficult for you, but that leaves about 20% of the victims of murder being women. So women are the minority of victims of violent crimes and the minority of victims of murder. They are also the minority of suicide victims. They are actually the minority for everything that is bad. They live longer, do not die in war, do not die on the job, and spend 80% of the countries money. But you go ahead and champion for them. If it makes you feel good about yourself, then please, by all means, knock yourself out.
July 17th, 2014 at 10:38 am
What’s the chance that Hardy tried to break up with her and she went crazy, went into a rage, and accused him of all this stuff falsely? Hardy made the 911 call, right? There’s about a 50/50 chance Hardy did very little wrong.
July 17th, 2014 at 10:46 am
“Nah, I think I will just continue to kick your butt with facts”
Women do not die in war????? 139 female US soldiers killed in Iraq alone. Nowhere near the amount of male soldiers I grant you but don’t tell their families that women don’t die in war.
July 17th, 2014 at 11:52 am
@BritBucsince92
I think you totally missed the point but since you want to argue stats lets get into it. When it comes to combat deaths: 291,557 American men died in WW2 compared to 543 women. 36,572 American men died in the Korean War compared to 2 women. 58,217 American men died in combat in the Vietnam war compared to 8 women. 368 American men died in combat in the first Persian Gulf War compared to 15 women. 4544 men have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict compared to 139 females. That totals out to 390,890 men and 707 women. Women make up .2% while men make up 99.8% of all combat related deaths. There, does that make you feel better? I think it would be easy to argue that .2% is damn near close to zero. I feel confident when I say that it is safer, by many orders of magnitude, to be a woman rather than a man in war time.
July 17th, 2014 at 12:15 pm
@Brandon
Chances are pretty good. She admitted to doing cocaine that night, and drinking heavily. Witnesses testified that she made threats to Hardy and other witnesses who said Holder had followed Hardy out of the EpiCentre on May 10, crying and later blocking his car from leaving. Police had to intervene after a security guard on the scene said Holder had kicked the door of Hardy’s car. This was 3 days before Hardy was arrested.
Hardy is 6 foot 4 and weighs 265. Holder claims that he threw her around the room and choked her yet there was not a single bruise or scratch on her. This is a typical case of he said she said and everyone going on the side of the woman.
So here we have a woman who has shown evidence of hostility towards Hardy. She has no wounds. He called 911 and claimed she was hitting him. The cops come and arrest HIM, which is typical. Even though there is no evidence and it is his word against hers, she admits to being on drugs, yet the female judge finds him guilty. But he is only sentenced to 60 days suspended and 18 months probation. So for all of you out there calling for his head for “beating” a woman, even a female judge did not see enough evidence of assault to give him jail time. It was a misdemeanor charge even.
Oh, and Daniel Zamora, Holder’s attorney, has already spoken openly about suing Hardy. Go figure. Gotta get that money.