Terry Bradshaw is sick of football players like Dallas Cowboys' Greg Hardy getting passes on domestic violence -- and he's even more upset that the NFL continues to give them.
A fired-up Bradshaw didn't mince words as he ripped into Hardy during the "Fox NFL Sunday" pre-game show.
"Anybody, in my opinion, who lays a hand on a woman, I don't care who you are, my friend: You never come back in this league," Bradshaw said.
"I really, really seriously hope, eventually, we never have a place in the NFL for people who ... strike a woman," Bradshaw said as his co-hosts sat in silence.
But Hardy, who was signed to the Cowboys in March, wasn't the only target of Bradshaw's criticism. Bradshaw tore into Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, mocking his "desperation" to get a pass rusher and calling him "an enabler himself."
Sunday marked Hardy's return to the field following a four-game suspension (reduced from an initial 10-game suspension) for domestic assault.
A judge convicted the 27-year-old last July of assaulting and threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend. The woman accused Hardy of strangling her, slamming her body against furniture and throwing her onto a couch covered with guns.
Hardy appealed his conviction and requested a jury trial. After the victim didn't appear in court to testify during the trial earlier this year, prosecutors dropped the case and Hardy's charges were dismissed.
Last year the NFL and the Canadian Football League expanded their personal conduct policy to include a "two strikes" penalty on domestic violence: A six-game suspension with no pay followed by a lifetime ban for any player who engages in domestic violence.
Experts and advocates have voiced skepticism that the league's supposed hard-line stance will do little more than make for good PR.
"Ultimately, that’s not the answer to ending domestic violence -- taking one person and cutting them off and thinking you’ve fixed the problem," Travis Lulay, a B.C. Lions quarterback and one of the Canadian Football League's leading voices in combating violence against women, recently told The Huffington Post.
Bradshaw called Hardy's return to the field "wrong" and said he was frankly tired of having to address the pervasive issue within the NFL.
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
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