Greg Hardy: The Role Of Domestic Violence In Football

Domestic abuse continues to be an issue in today’s society. Mass media has helped raise awareness of this social issue. One of the most publicized realms of domestic violence can be found among members of the National Football League. The NFL’s most recently accused players is Dallas Cowboy’s Greg Hardy. In 2014, “Hardy was tried and found guilty of misdemeanor assault and communicating threats”, which led to his placement on the NFL exempt list and release from the Carolina Panthers almost immediately after (Almasy and Martin 2015). Hardy, being one of the most talented pass rushers in the league, was eager to get back into the game upon the lift of his suspension, and was quickly recruited by the Dallas Cowboys, “who signed Hardy in the

offseason as a free agent”, and said that the organization, “did their due diligence before offering him a contract” (Almasy and Martin 2015). It wasn’t until the recent release of photos exploiting the physical domestic abuse Hardy enacted upon his ex-girlfriend, that the Dallas Cowboys have had to take ownership of employing a man capable of such a crime. In a public statement released by the Dallas Cowboys, the organization states that it “does not condone domestic violence”, and that they, “entered into the agreement with Greg fully understanding that there would be scrutiny and criticism” and that even with the team’s awareness of the incident, the team has, “given Greg a second chance” (Almasy and Martin 2015). Critical Theory helps examine the acceptance of domestic violence expressed by the Dallas Cowboys and Greg Hardy.
Johnson (2008) states that “the overall goal of critical theory is to raise our consciousness of how existing structures and systems tend to subordinate an repress large segments of the population, molding and shaping people’s consciousness and regulating their behavior for the sake of their own maintenance”. The NFL has statutes in place defining the league’s intolerance of domestic abuse, and in the case of Greg Hardy, he had already experienced and completed the repercussions of his offense before the Dallas Cowboys recruited him to be a member of their team. Because the suspension had been lifted, the cowboys ignored the stigma attached to Hardy and recruited him due to his physical ability and success as a football player. But if someone is to commit domestic violence once, what is to say that the person won’t commit domestic violence again.
Sociologist Alice Rossi argues that, in “regard to aggression, social and cultural influences are commonly employed to try and prevent socially disruptive forms of aggressive behavior through various social control mechanisms, or allow its expression in harmless… ways such as competitive sports” (Johnson 2008:437).

For Hardy, his aggression was targeted into the highly aggressive sport of football, which ultimately led to his success as a player. Being a professional athlete, the athlete is always in the public eye and open to public social media forms of scrutiny. The social norm is to not commit domestic violence, so with Hardy constantly being in the public eye, it was the social norm to behave while in public, and “this internal control was reinforced by the development of surveillance procedures” or “self-discipline” resulting in Hardy’s deviance being acted on when he knew he couldn’t be seen (Johnson 2008:417). When Hardy was unable to target his aggression in to football, he had to find another source of release, leading to his ex-girlfriend becoming his new outlet for aggression. Men like Hardy, who are extremely successful in their career, assume a sense of power that sometimes carries into their domestic relationships. In the case of domestic violence, this exertion of power can be, “linked to the origins of patriarchy with the beginning of private property” (Johnson 2008:443). This ideology of men controlling women as private property is what leads to most cases

of domestic violence.
In recent studies, public opinion has expressed domestic “violence and abuse as unacceptable criminal behavior rather than merely ‘private troubles’” (Carlson and Worden 2002:3).

Johnson (2008) states that “the goals of such transformation [of critical theory] should be to advance human rights, protect human freedom, and promote the highest possible level of human fulfillment”. Because the Dallas Cowboys are seen as one of America’s elite organizations, they have the ability to sway public opinion and “mass media plays a crucial role in this process” (Johnson 2008:403). According to Johnson (2008) one of the key point’s critical theory critiques is “how power elites are able to maintain their position, sometimes by neutralizing or coopting their opponents, in an environment of widespread public apathy”. So, by the Dallas Cowboys releasing their public statement claiming their intolerance towards domestic violence, they are able maintain their positive image and elite status. Because the powerful elite have such a public positive to uphold, “the activities and decisions of elites are not necessarily always widely publicized”, leading society as whole to having “little reason to question the pluralistic image” of a team like the Dallas

Cowboys.
Domestic violence is morally and criminally unjust. Critical Theory helps explain how Greg Hardy was able to enact domestic violence and still be recruited by the elite Dallas Cowboys football team. Because the private lives of the world’s elite are so rarely publicized, it helps maintain the world’s elite members from scrutiny and helps maintain their status as high ranking and highly influential public figures.