Jerry Jones admits Greg Hardy’s off-field issues affected Cowboys

Jerry Jones is not the type of guy who is going to admit that his team made a major mistake by signing Greg Hardy, but the Dallas Cowboys owner came about as close as you will see him come while speaking to reporters over the weekend.

Jones, the same guy who referred to Hardy as a “real leader” a few months ago, admitted that Hardy’s off-field issues negatively impacted the Cowboys.

“I’m not going to get into, obviously [his] off the field issues would have impacted anybody breathing,” he said, per Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News. “I think that was impactful. And then the fact that we weren’t winning.”

Jones previously expressed his disappointment in the Cowboys’ disastrous 2015 season, but he has seemed intent on keeping the focus on football and pretending Hardy does not have enormous character issues. Continuing with that theme, Jones said Saturday that he feels Hardy would have been better had he not missed the entire 2015 season.

“Even though you are a great God-gifted player or an accomplished player, you just lose something that you got to get back to when you are laid off,” Jones said. “I think that we all underestimated the effect of his layoff from playing.”

Hardy started out strong with three sacks in his first two games, so it didn’t seem like he was rusty from not playing. Reports like this one made it seem as though he lost focus and became a distraction. That probably has a lot to do with why the Cowboys sound like they are finished with him.