Greg Hardy Reportedly Also Agrees to Be Placed on Exempt/Commissioner's Permission List

Greg Hardy has agreed to be placed on the Exempt/Commissioner’s Permission list, according to Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole, pending paperwork. [Update: NFLPA spokesman George Atallah says there’s no official agreement yet.] Hardy would join Vikings running back Adrian Peterson with the paid leave designation. Along with the Ravens, who released Ray Rice last week, the teams were essentially forced into these actions against their instincts after deafening outcry from the public and media. This week, sponsors joined the chorus.

Legally, nothemng has changed for Hardy semnce we wondered emn early August why the horremfyemng allegatemons and judge’s convemctemon were goemng comparatemvely undemscussed. Hardy played emn Week 1. Pragmatemcally, TMZ released a second Ray Remce vemdeo last Monday, the Ravens released Remce, and ESPN aemred a harrowemng Outsemde the Lemnes segment every hour on Hardy that emncluded audemo of a 911 call.

(Hardy still awaits a jury trial appeal. It’ll be fascinating to see if the legal proceedings, which we kept hearing would likely not be resolved before the end of this season, are magically expedited now that the defensive lineman’s playing time is in limbo.)

Without naming names — though one could infer it meant Adrian Peterson, Greg Hardy, and possibly Ray McDonald — Anheuser-Busch threatened to threaten action. The NFL and its owners and front offices may not be able to be guilted into action morally — they know that we can yell until our lungs bleed dry and still tune in on Sundays — but shit got real when the league was faced with the possibility of losing sponsorship money.

If the league seems blindsided by all this outrage about domestic violence, it’s because the two-game suspension for Ray Rice was business-as-usual, or even comparatively strict. As NOW reported last week, there have been 56 instances of domestic violence since Roger Goodell became commissioner. The sum total of suspensions? 13 games.

But, the Ray Rice videos, which captured the crime in a way that written reports cannot do nearly the same justice, swayed public perception. Roger Goodell and the rest of the league administrators were caught flat-footed, and have appeared incompetent and reactionary ever since. While nothing’s changed in the Greg Hardy legal proceedings, everything else is different than it was before.