Greg Hardy Likely to Seek Reinstatement Soon?

According to a report from ESPN, Panthers DE Greg Hardy will waste no time trying to get reinstatement not that a judge has struck down the NFL arbitrator’s decision not to hear Adrian Peterson’s appeal. Peterson had been appealing the League’s refusal to take him off of the Commissioner’s Exempt List. Per league policy the appeal was heard before an NFL arbitrator who declined the appeal. That is the item that has been struck down by the federal judge today.

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So a quick recap. Peterson was put on the Commissioner’s Exempt list when it became known that he had beat his child with a switch, resulting in enough injury to go the doctor’s office. He was charged with child abuse, but pled down to a misdemeanor. Peterson, because he avoided felony conviction, then asked to be reinstated by the League. The NFL refused, Peterson appealed, and the arbitrator refused the appeal. Now that has been struck down and presumably Peterson’s appeal will move forward. It is hard to know how it will end, but Peterson is not reinstated yet.

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The Hardy camp views this as a signal that they should go ahead and apply for reinstatement. If the NFL refuses, then Hardy will appeal. It seems unlikely that the NFL would deny the appeal in light of what happened to Peterson. Then the Hardy camp would present the lack of a criminal conviction by a jury of Hardy’s peers and the lack of willingness for the victim to come forward as evidence that he could not be held out of returning to football. He might still receive some penalty, but it would not be as severe as if he had been convicted by the jury.

None of this will mater to the Panthers. The Hardy drama is played out for them, and they will let Hardy go to free agency. The money that they save from this will end up being spent on multiple players down the road.