Charges Against Greg Hardy Dropped

It happened in May of last year. Greg Hardy, then defensive end for the Carolina Panthers, was involved with a dispute with his girlfriend, at the time, Nicole Holder. Hardy had apparently beat Holder pretty badly, leading to a domestic violence suit being filed against the NFL Star. The trial was on hold till today. Everybody was gearing up for the case in court, but it never went that far. At least not yet anyway. Right now the charges against Hardy have been dismissed. The reason being that his accuser did not making herself available to help with the case.

When court was set to go on Monday Hardy's accuser, ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder, did not show up for the hearing. In a statement explaining the decision to dismiss charges, the district attorney's office said it has "reliable information" that Holder and Hardy have reached a civil settlement and that she has "intentionally made herself unavailable to the State." Prosecutors have been unable to locate Holder to issue her a subpoena, which would have compelled her to testify in the trial. Holder's civil attorney also has refused to assist prosecutors in locating his client. "Without her testimony, in this particular instance, the State could not proceed," the district attorney's office said (ESPN). Hardy was originally found guilty of assaulting and threatening Holder back in July. Since then, Hardy has been put on the commissioner's exempt list before Week 3 until his case was resolved. As it sits right now, Hardy is still on that list.

Holder had said, back in November when the prosecution last spoke with her, that she wouldn't go through this again in a trial. So without Holder going back to court, the charges against Hardy have been dropped and the case dismissed.  Just because legal actions haven't been taken, from a court perspective anyway, doesn't mean that action still can't be taken the NFL. Hardy would have been subject to a minimum six-week suspension by the NFL under the league's new code of conduct policy if he had been found guilty (ESPN).

The league still has yet to make a ruling on the defensive end, so its still up in the air for what the future holds for his playing career. Lets say that nothing happens from the league, Hardy will become a free agent. From all reports, Carolina won't be pursuing him to come back, after what has gone down. Hardy will, in all lieklyhood hit the market, once free agency opens up on March 10th. Hardy hitting the free agent market will be one of the more interesting free agents in the offseason.

Hardy, when he was on the field, was quite productive. During his last two years of actual play, 2012 and 2013, Hardy totaled 26 sacks and 141 pressures in those two seasons. Those numbers make him one of the most productive pass-rushers in the NFL. You always see teams league wide that are in need of pass-rushers, and Hardy is one of the best. One thing that's going to stick out is this hanging over his head. There is still a chance that somebody could possibly take a flyer on him. We've already seen that NFL teams are willing to take a shot at players with ugly stories hanging over their heads. Look no further than the Buffalo Bills, who just last week signed former Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito. Incognito, you might remember, was at the center of a bullying scandal two years ago. It goes to show that teams could take a flyer on a guy, if he can still produce on the field. Is there a chance that he gets signed by an NFL team? Yes. Will it take a while before somebody signs him? Who knows.