Clearly Hardy hasn't and isn't going to change because he got suspended for a while without being convicted of anything. There were of course calls for him to be suspended forever or until he showed enough contrition for his actions. Some media types saw Hardy's continuing presence in the NFL as an affront to women everywhere, as if by letting Hardy return the NFL is complicit in his actions.
The argument that Hardy should not be allowed to play is baffling and exposes the problem with how poorly equipped society and the judicial system is to deal with people who exist in the margins. People who are squeaky clean are good to go with no stigma. People like Charles Manson get to die in jail and we all think this is justice. But what do we do with people like Hardy, who have not been convicted of anything but are reprehensible, or people who have been convicted but have served their time?
What possible good does it do the country to bar these people from working in their field of expertise? Is the world any better off now that Ray Rice can't find work? Or was the nation improved by the dentist who killed that lion having to shut down his practice? Of course not. All that does is put people who were safely self sufficient (and their kids) at risk of going broke and becoming a burden to the state. This is especially true in the Hardy case. What secondary career is he going to get into if he can't play football? I'm sure he doesn't have an MBA laying around waiting for him to start using. It seems almost guaranteed that an asshole like Hardy will get into trouble if he has to try and find a new way to earn a living.
People will of course complain that playing football is a privilege and shouldn't be open to people who behave like Hardy and that to allow him to play rewards his behavior. This is pure nonsense. Professional sports is one of the few merit based institutions left and you only get to work there if you prove yourself to be deserving every week. Also, you can punish people without making it impossible for them to work.
It seems that people today, especially in the media, are so focused on being the first to be outraged over everything that they simply can't think logically. No matter how many people think that banning Hardy from the NFL is justice, banning him doesn't mean he simply vanishes in a puff of smoke, never to offend our fair senses again. He, like all the other people who live in the grey area of life, will continue to exist in the country and they can either be a positive or negative element. As a country we should be more interested in assembling a judicial system that works to the benefit of the country rather than creating additional burdens. If people commit crimes they should be tried and punished and possibly jailed but when they are finished with that we should demand that they do work as much or more than their fellow citizens so they can pay us all back for the cost it took to process them through the legal system. True justice for Hardy would be forcing him to play for the Cowboys during the day for 12 million and then making him clean the stadium at night for minimum wage. Garnish both wages if you want, that would be just and proper, but don't ban them from working. All that does is victimize all the rest of us by forcing us to subsidize their continued existence through government aid.
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