Greg Hardy Suspension: When Will Goodell Release the Kraken?

Greg Hardy, affectionately known as “The Kraken”, faces an unknown future in 2015. Sure, he knows he’ll be playing for the Dallas Cowboys. And sure, he’ll be earning roughly $588k per game plus incentives. But what he doesn’t know is when exactly he’ll be playing.

As everyone knows by now, Hardy faces suspension for his reprehensible behavior that May night in 2014. Everyone also probably knows, his legal issues are now behind him (case explanation below), but his NFL issues are far from over.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is currently conducting a suspiciously late investigation of his own. The tardiness of said investigation indicates Goodell is weighing public reaction before ruling on the severity of the punishment.

"Make no mistake, a punishment is coming. It’s only a matter of how severe it will be."

Goodell can’t afford to screw this up and look like he’s going soft on domestic violence again. After going shamefully soft on domestic violence during his entire tenure, Goodell finally faced a public backlash for his mishandling of the Ray Rice incident.

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After initially suspending Rice an entire 2 games (sarcasm intended) for punching a woman in the face, a video tape was released showing everyone in the world exactly what that incident looked like. The public outcry was severe, and the dozens of domestic violence cases NFL players incur each year were exposed – As was the NFL’s pathetic stance on them. Goodell eventually extended the suspension but the damage was done, and many were calling for Goodell’s job.

That’s what brings us to Greg Hardy.

Roger Goodell could have very easily investigated and ruled on Hardy’s punishment weeks ago. The facts are out there and Goodell’s had the time and resources to get this done. He just hasn’t. He wants to know what we want first. To Goodell, this suspension is more about him, the commissioner, than about Greg Hardy, the offending player.

Public perception has been changing as well. People who have taken the time to read the case, the testimony from the victim, and witnesses accounts, don’t feel good about calling Greg Hardy “innocent” anymore. Paying off a witness to leave town just leaves a bad taste in your mouth, ya know?

Roger Goodell is waiting for this situation to stabilize before he rules what the most agreeable penalty would be. Many have speculated the suspension will likely be 6 games (Peter King, SI). Others (Stephen A Smith, First Take) have called for 8 games as a penalty. Still others say they wouldn’t be surprised if he was held out the entire year (Skip Bayless, First Take).

What will it be?

The recently redrafted domestic abuse policy says up to 6 games should be the punishment for a first-time offense, but Roger Goodell has been known to deviate when he sees fit. For now, we sit back and wait. Roger Goodell is trying to figure out what the suspension should be and he’s looking to you, me, and the rest of the public to help him decide.

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Case Recap: After being found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the original bench trial, Hardy appealed, requesting a jury trial. In the interim, Hardy and the victim Nicole Holder were said to have come to a financial settlement. After which, Holder went missing, making herself unavailable for subpoena to testify in the jury trial. As with most domestic abuse cases where the victim refuses to testify, the case was dismissed and Greg Hardy went free.

Greg Hardy spent the 2014 NFL season getting paid by the Carolina Panthers under the franchise tag, but only actually played in one game after being placed on the commissioner exempt list.

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