Mr. Scot

No owner in the league polls fan opinions when making business decisions, nor should they. Olsen I completely agree with. Johnson is possible, but I'm not as certain.

Thomas Davis is the most obvious choice. Doubt anyone would disagree with that.

It's amazing that technically an innocent man

In his Black and Blue Review article about players lobbying for Greg Hardy, Bill Voth mentioned that among those doing it were players who "have Jerry Richardson's ear". Now to be clear, this thread is not about figuring out who's lobbying for Hardy. Feel free to start that discussion in a new thread or in one of the half-dozen Hardy threads already active if you like, but that's not the point here. Instead, I'm throwing out this general question... What Panther players on offense, defense and special teams have enough standing on this team that owner Jerry Richardson is willing to give real weight to what they have to say? (I'll save my own thoughts for later, except to say my general sense is it would be a relatively small number of players)

Why limit it to your lifetime?

Then why do Jerry Richardson and "others in the building" think he isn't trustworthy?

And yet we still managed to field one of the best defenses in the league by season's end. Believe it or not, our entire fortunes next season aren't going to rise and fall on Greg Hardy.

There's pretty good evidence he was gonna be too expensive to keep anyway. And 'blank check' negotiations put us in the kind of cap hell that we're just now starting to climb out of.

The vast majority of players understand that it's a business. Popular guys get let go on an annual basis from every team in the league. The Panthers aren't unique in that, and any player looking for a team where that doesn't happen is gonna be sorely disappointed. And we don't know that Hardy is 'begging to come back'. The whole 'play for free' thing could easily just be talk. Heck we don't even know how many teammates are actually backing Hardy. Regardless, no front office in the league polls players before making roster decisions, nor should they.

Pretty good chance that if someone else offers Hardy a lot more money than we do, Hardy won't want to be here either.

Players aren't the ones responsible for making roster decisions, and for good reason. Nobody'd ever get let go and everybody'd get paid large salaries (basically what Marty Hurney did). The guys who do make the roster decisions are the ones who don't think they can trust Hardy.

Greg Hardy's likely just going to be allowed to walk via free agency and he'll probably get a pretty good payday wherever he goes. That's something that happens on an annual basis. Ted Ginn, Mike Mitchell, Captain Munnerlyn and others have been allowed to find deals elsewhere in recent years. Others will this year too. Now take Steve Smith, on the other hand, who was proactively cut. If Steve Smith being let go didn't divide the team, what makes you think letting Greg Hardy get paid somewhere else will?

Well yeah, if you excuse anything he does, then there's no pattern. The story about his tweeting the pic while driving was well known and discussed plenty within this forum. Steve Smith was said to have famously ripped him for it at the time. Voth's article about teammates lobbying for him states specifically that "Richardson and others inside the building feel like they can't trust him". No stretch to expect Dave Gettleman is among the "others". Spin it any way you want but no matter what fans think, if Richardson and Gettleman see enough of a pattern that they think Hardy can't be trusted, he's not coming back.

The kind that doesn't trust him to stay out of trouble well enough to earn a big money contract. It's just like how Josh Gordon is a great receiver...when he's not suspended. Guys who are suspended don't help you win a lot of games.

Word from inside the Niners locker room was that his act was wearing thin on a lot of guys. Many people point to the diminishing returns this season as part of that. The whole "constantly yelling and screaming" thing is something that can work pretty well on a group of kids who'll be playing under you for generally four years at most. On a group of paid professional adults with the means to seek out other opportunities, not so much.

Voth gave no names, but he did say it was "team leaders, guys who have (Jerry) Richardson’s ear." He also said this... Not sure how many people read those particular lines in the article. Pretty good odds that "others inside the building" includes Dave Gettleman. Voth is still only giving this a "slim chance". Hardy fans probably shouldn't get their hopes up.

Best wishes from here, sweetie

I actually think Geep (pronounced 'Jeep') Chryst is a good choice for OC. That said, I still think the Niners will suck this year (and probably for a while).

I had a hard time believing he'd survive the Ray Rice fiasco. Granted the league slyly limiting the investigation (i.e. having Mueller refrain from investigating whether there was a cover up) was a clear CYA gesture. Now they can say "see, we had an independent investigation and found nothing", even if they really didn't. But after all that, in a year when the league took more hits than Glass Joe in Mike Tyson's Punch Out, they still paid him 35 million. Something tells me a few fan complaints or boos from the draft audience isn't likely to change their minds.

Wasn't talking about Hardy giving money back. People have suggested that the league should give the Panthers extra cap space as an apology for screwing them over last year. Like I said, delusional. I've been pretty vocal about the league's CYA tactics in the wake of the Ray Rice screwup. To be fair, domestic violence rightly should net a large penalty, but the charge that the league is overcompensating right now could very well have some merit. That ship may right itself down the road, but for now the league has image problems and Hardy is a reminder of them. Beyond that though... Objectively speaking, even without the domestic violence trial, it was going to be highly unlikely that Hardy would stay a Panther this year. He'd already reportedly turned down an 8 million a year offer. Much as I enjoyed having him on the roster, I couldn't have gotten behind a bigger offer than that.

Yeah, you'd have a hard time finding anyone who'd say "oh my gosh, I never suspected".

Denying his constitutional right to play professional football?

That's the thing though. you don't have to love him or hate him. People that are filtering it through that notion are completely missing the point. I'm fine if he's brought back. I'm also fine if he isn't. If you're able to look at the situation objectively, there's way more evidence that he won't be back than there is that he will. It's reality. Scenarios people are posting like the league apologizing to Hardy or giving money back to the Panthers or the Panthers actually franchising Hardy again are just delusional. Some on here don't seem to be able to accept that because they love Hardy the Panther, but they need to realize that after March "Hardy the Panther" may no longer exist.

Reckless motorcycle riding just a few days before camp... Hundred mile an hours in his car, while taking a pic with his phone and tweeting it... That horrendous rap video while he's suspended from the team... Not making any great effort to stay around the team despite being allowed by the league... Going to the strip club rather than supporting his teammates in an important game... Poorly timed marketing of himself... And his other misadventures on social media... Let's face it. We're not exactly talking about a guy with a history of good judgment and decision making.

You forgot the apology.