Jerry Jones is once again going to bat for Greg Hardy after the Cowboys defensive lineman once again stirred controversy.
Hardy and Dez Bryant had a shouting match on the sideline during Dallas’s 27-20 loss to the New York Giants. What sparked the incident wasn’t exactly clear, so naturally, reporters went to Hardy after the game to try and get information.
Hardy was not at all forthcoming.
Greg Hardy: "No comment. Next question." To every question. Before he heard them. Class act, Greg Hardy.
— Steve Politi (@StevePoliti) October 26, 2015
Politi posted a full transcript of Hardy’s remarks, if you can call them remarks at all.
So in one day, Hardy was caught in an altercation with his team’s best player and angrily blew off the media. Fear not, though, Jerry Jones remains steadfastly on his side, claiming that Hardy was simply attempting to fire up the special teams players that he was shoving around.
“He’s, of course, one of the real leaders on this team and he earns it and he earns it with respect from all of his teammates and that’s the kind of thing that inspires a football team,” Jones said, per Politi.
Jones has previously defended Hardy’s controversial comments, though it’s unclear if he was aware of Hardy’s surliness toward the media here. It seems he’s speaking only about the televised incident. Still, calling Hardy one of the “real leaders on this team” is a really bad look at the moment. While teammates arguing on the sideline isn’t exactly a high crime and happens on a semi-regular basis, there is really no excuse for this sort of continued behavior, and it’s just the latest in a long line of missteps on Hardy’s part. It’s just who he is, and with every new controversy, it becomes more and more difficult to dispute Terry Bradshaw’s assertion that Jones is enabling this sort of behavior.
