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Greg Hardy Arrested: Former Dallas Cowboys Defensive End Thrown In Jail For Cocaine Possession

By Jason Fletcher
Published on: 12:07 PST, Sep 26, 2016

Former Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was arrested early Monday morning in Richmond, TX for possession of a controlled substance after cops found less than a gram of cocaine in his car during a routine traffic stop. According to TMZ, Hardy was arraigned this morning and bailed himself out of Richardson City Jail on Monday evening.

This arrest is just the latest for Greg, who has struggled to stay out of trouble since being drafted by the Panthers in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft out of Mississippi. In May 2014, Hardy was arrested for assault and communicating threats against his girlfriend, Nicole Holder. After a judge found him guilty, Greg and his attorneys requested a jury trial.

Before the jury trial even took place, Holder and Hardy settled out of court which led to her not showing up for court hearings. The charges were then dropped, and in November 2015, the charges were expunged from Greg’s record.

Following his arrest in 2014, Hardy was allowed to play in the first game of the 2014 season for the Panthers before NFL commissioner Roger Goodell placed him on the commissioner’s exempt list for the rest of the season. Following the year, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson made the executive decision to not re-sign Greg, making him a free agent.

Despite not knowing if Greg Hardy would be suspended, the Dallas Cowboys made the decision to sign him to a one-year deal with heavy incentives. The team would later find out that Hardy was suspended for 10 games by Goodell after the league’s two-month investigation found there was “sufficient credible evidence” that Greg had been involved in conduct that “violated NFL policies in multiple respects and with aggravating circumstances.”

According to the league’s investigation, there were four separate circumstances that involved physical force, including one instance where Hardy placed his hands around Holder’s throat hard enough to leave finger marks. The league concluded that Greg’s actions were “a significant act of violence in violation of the Personal Conduct Policy.”

Hardy filed an appeal of the suspension and an independent arbiter reduced the suspension from 10 games down to four. Upon returning from his suspension, Greg recorded 35 total tackles, six sacks, and an interception in 12 games, but he had several altercations with teammates on the sideline and ultimately served as more of a distraction than asset which led to the Cowboys not offering him a new contract.

In the offseason, the Jacksonville Jaguars had Greg Hardy in for a visit but ultimately decided not to sign the veteran defensive end. Despite the team’s need for help along the defensive line, the front office and coaching staff ultimately decided that it was too much of a risk to bring him in.

Over the last few weeks, Hardy has taken to his Twitter account to send some subtle messages to NFL teams that he’s ready to return. Greg has been retweeting fans that have suggested that certain NFL teams should add Hardy, but no team has come calling, and it’s highly unlikely any team will until he can prove that he can stay on the right path.

[Featured Image by Tom Pennington/Getty Images]

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