Christine Brennan: If MMA has any smarts, Greg Hardy won't be wanted

(This story first appeared at USA TODAY Sports.)

The full and total punishment of domestic abuser Greg Hardy has finally arrived. He has given up on the NFL, after it gave up on him. As lifetime bans go, this was too long in coming, but now it’s unequivocally here.

Hardy, a standout defensive end who was found guilty of assaulting his former girlfriend in 2014, has a new career goal. He wants to try his luck at MMA.

Isn’t that perfect? He can now assault people for a living.

“I’m very focused and excited to start my MMA career,” Hardy told MMA Fighting.com. “I’m going to do this the right way, I can assure you of that.”

That would be a first.

Let’s recall what Hardy, who is 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds, did to his then-girlfriend, Nicole Holder. He flung her from a bed, threw her into a bathtub and then tossed her onto a futon covered with at least four semiautomatic rifles and three other guns. Holder said Hardy ripped a necklace he had given her off her neck, threw it into a toilet and then slammed the lid on her arm when she tried to retrieve it.

He dragged her by her hair from room to room, shoved her against a wall and put his hands around her neck, applying enough pressure to leave visible marks.

“He looked me in my eyes and he told me he was going to kill me,” Holder said. “I was so scared I wanted to die.”

Had there been videotape of this, as there was in Ray Rice’s assault of his then-fiance in an elevator, Hardy’s life as a public person would have been over.

He was lucky. There was none. Graphic and disturbing police photos did emerge, but they received far less attention than the Rice video did.

Nonetheless, in July 2014, Hardy was found guilty of assaulting Holder and threatening to kill her. He appealed the judge’s ruling and asked for a jury trial. In February 2015, prosecutors in North Carolina said charges would be dropped when Holder, who was paid a settlement by Hardy, could not be found.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell kicked Hardy out of the league for all but one game of the 2014 season, although Hardy was still paid his $13.1 million salary.

Goodell then suspended Hardy for the first 10 games of the 2015 season, but the NFL Players Association reprehensibly fought that suspension and got it reduced to four games. Hardy was signed by the Dallas Cowboys, where his lack of contrition and discipline became serious distractions for the team the rest of last season.

No team wanted to be anywhere near him this season, and he remains a free agent. Last month, he was arrested on cocaine possession charges.

He’s all yours, MMA.