Greg Hardy’s ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder injury photos tell disturbing story

The domestic violence case that was filed against Greg Hardy several months ago was dismissed in February, and the charges were expunged from his record earlier this week. When you read some of the alleged details from the night Hardy was accused of beating his ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder, the fact that the Dallas Cowboys defensive end is still playing football will make you sick to your stomach.

Diana Moskovitz of Deadspin has uncovered some disturbing photos and details from the May 2014 incident involving Hardy and Holder. Prosecutors believe Hardy reached a settlement with Holder at some point, which is why she suddenly disappeared from the case and stopped cooperating.

But the photos, which are disturbing in nature and can be seen here, make it clear that someone needs to be held accountable.

Deadspin combed through hundreds of pages of police reports and testimonies. Hardy’s defense from the start was that Holder went berserk and caused injuries to herself, but that is almost impossible to believe when you read the interviews and see the photos police took. Here’s some of what Holder eventually told investigators:

He dragged her out by her hair and picked her up again, she said, throwing her onto the futon, which had several weapons—what she described as “guns from … the Army or … I mean like from video games” – on it. She landed on top of the rifles and then fell onto the floor. In her telling, he stood above her and strangled her with both his hands. She would later tell Detective Faye Strother that she thought she was going to die. “His pupils were tiny,” she said. “I mean he looked … crazy.”

Here’s how Hardy, via his lawyer, tried to exonerate himself:

“When asked to explain Holder’s injuries during his bench trial, he and Curtis would testify that Holder had jumped into the bathtub, then thrown herself on the couch, and then went crazy trying to attack Hardy. Hardy’s lawyer, Chris Fialko, would assert that Holder must have caused the injuries to herself. If the 290-lb. pass rusher had really wanted to hurt a woman who weighed well less than half what he did, his argument went, the damage would have been a lot worse.

Holder told police at first that nothing happened and that she was afraid Hardy was going to kill her. One of the officers who arrived at the scene later summarized that Holder admitted Hardy “beat the hell” out of her but refused to go into detail. She said that if she ever did anything to damage Hardy’s NFL career, he would kill her.

The most — but in no way surprising — part of all this is that the NFL received the reports from police, which in all likelihood means the league had a chance to view the disturbing photos. Yet, Hardy’s suspension was reduced by an arbitrator to four games — the same amount the NFL suspended Tom Brady for his alleged general awareness of ball tampering. Brady’s suspension was upheld by Roger Goodell, who acted as the arbitrator in that case.

If Hardy faces further league discipline in the wake of the photos going public, it will be an identical situation to the Ray Rice elevator video forcing the league’s hand. Good luck to Jerry Jones in defending all the stuff he recently said about Hardy.