“I HOPE I come out guns blazing. I’m full of excitement and full of juice. I’m ready to go.” Those comments from a player making his return would usually be deemed normal. If anything, it is the perfect response when asked a question about your feelings after 19 games in the NFL. But for Greg Hardy, the player who spoke those words, it was the worst phrase he could have come out with.

Hardy, while at the Carolina Panthers last season, missed 15 games for a domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend last year.

The Dallas Cowboys picked him up in the summer and handed him a $13 million one-year contract knowing he could be handed a further suspension. And he was, with the league throwing down a 10-game suspension without pay. But this was reduced to four.