Greg Hardy Denies Hitting Ex-Girlfriend In Interview

Greg Hardy’s contract with the Dallas Cowboys expired just last month. No team has signed the controversial free agent defensive end since then, which is why Hardy had time to sit down with ESPN’s Adam Schefter for an interview on Monday.

Greg Hardy Denies Hitting Ex-Girlfriend In ESPN Interview

During the interview, Hardy denied every having hit a woman, in response to Schefter’s question regarding a 2014 domestic violence incident in Charlotte, North Carolina, involving him and his former girlfriend, Nicole Holder. At the time of the incident, Hardy was a member of the Carolina Panthers.

“I’ve never put my hand on any women … in my whole entire life, no sir,” Hardy said Monday in Oxford, Miss., where he played collegiately for the University of Mississippi. “That’s just not how we’re raised. As you can tell, like I said again, it’s the Bible belt. It’s just something that’s, I wouldn’t even say frowned upon, just something that’s nonexistent in most southern homes.”

Schefter then followed up by asking Hardy about the pictures of Holder, in which she is shown severely bruised and battered, that surfaced on the website Deadspin last November in connection with the alleged assault.

Holder accused Hardy, 27, of throwing her against a bathroom wall, and then pushing her onto a bed covered with assault rifles and subsequently choking her and threatening to kill her during an altercation at his apartment.

“I will stop you there and say that I didn’t say that I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “That situation occurred and that situation was handled but … saying that I did nothing wrong is a stretch but saying I am innocent is correct. Yes sir.”

Hardy was convicted on charges of domestic violence, specifically assaulting a female and communicating threats, in 2014 in a bench trial by judge. He appealed, seeking a jury trial, but the case was thrown out in February 2015 when Holder stopped cooperating with authorities. Hardy filed a petition last year in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, to have his domestic violence charges expunged from his record.

After a portion of the interview aired on ESPN, Hardy was called out by former Panthers teammate Steve Smith Sr. on Twitter. The wide receiver, who now plays for the Baltimore Ravens, tweeted an excerpt of Hardy’s interview and called himself an advocate against domestic violence, adding that his mother is a survivor.

A six-year NFL veteran, Hardy has compiled 40 career sacks in 75 games and was tagged by the Panthers as their franchise player after the 2013 season, when he posted a career-best 15 sacks.

Hardy was suspended four games last season and missed all but one in 2014 with the Panthers.