The Cowboys — specifically owner Jerry Jones — were resolute to the point of defiance about Greg Hardy earlier this year.
But after a series of small-dumb things like missing meetings and embarrassing interviews and big things like the release of photos of the injuries his ex-girlfriend suffered during their domestic incident, the Cowboys are beginning to sound a little more conditional about the future of the defensive end.
As recently as Oct. 27, Jones was talking about extending Hardy’s contract beyond the one-year, pay-as-you-go deal he signed.
But during his weekly radio show on 105.3 The Fan yesterday, the topic of an extension was spoken of in far more hypothetical terms.
“Greg knows what’s expected and nobody is more aware of the scrutiny and nobody is more aware, now ever more so, of what we expect of him,” Jones said, via Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “The good news is we go forward. We see if we get what’s expected of him, which I fully anticipate you would get. But we see how and what’s expected of him and we go from there.
“We don’t, and you know this, just the nature of this one, we don’t as a practice, discuss detail of extending or not extending. I’ll give an indication, but that’s about it. So we’ll leave it for that. I have no reason to think that Greg won’t do what’s expected of him throughout the year.”
Of course, Jones probably expected a “real leader” like Hardy to do things like show up for meetings, and he’s not doing that, either.
The contract talk mirrors a softening of their stance in general. After the photos were leaked, their initial statement spoke of giving Hardy a “second chance,” but after losing to the Eagles that weekend, Jones said “If he will do the right things, if he will take advantage of the opportunities that he has got there and this second chance, then we’ll see how it goes.”
Jones also sidestepped questions yesterday about Hardy being fined for missing last Thursday’s meetings (the morning after changing his Twitter profile to declare himself a victim). There was no on-field punishment, as he started and played 60 of 71 snaps without a sack in a loss to the Buccaneers.
The Cowboys haven’t won a game in which Hardy has appeared.
