Adrian Peterson isn't likely to aid the Dallas Cowboys with his play this season, but it seems he can still have a positive impact on the Cowboys 2015 prospects from afar.
Peterson had his indefinite NFL-mandated suspension vacated earlier this offseason, a decision which could provide the perfect blueprint for Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy to get his own 10-game suspension, handed down by the league in the wake of his domestic violence issue from last season, reduced or thrown out.
Hardy and the player's union will appear before arbitrator Harold Henderson Thursday and argue that the 10-game suspension, combined with the 15 games he was forced to miss while on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's exempt list last year, meaning a total of 25 missed NFL games, is too-hefty a punishment and therefore does not fit the supposed crime under the laws of the league's personal conduct policy that was in place when Hardy's incident first occured.
Henderson is also the arbitrator who heard Peterson's appeal and initially upheld his suspension - federal judge David Doty later vacated that decision and Peterson again became an active member of the NFL brotherhood.
Per Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports, Peterson's successful argument in federal court that his time on the exempt list constituted "time served" according to previous NFL personal conduct guidelines and that Goodell was attempting to hand down a further suspension based on a new and, seemingly "ever-changing," personal conduct policy, could greatly benefit Hardy and the NFLPA.
"While the league's charges and the legal circumstances differ broadly from what Peterson went through when facing a child abuse charge, there is a key similarity in sanctioning that the NFLPA will argue on Hardy's behalf. Specifically, that for the second time, Goodell applied new personal conduct guidelines and penalties to a player for alleged acts that occurred when a prior system was in place," writes Robinson.
"Under that argument, Peterson became one of the few players to challenge the NFL's discipline and have a federal judge disagree with the league's stance. In essence, the NFLPA argued that after Peterson pled down his child abuse charge, the NFL used a new standard when it subsequently ruled that the running back would be suspended indefinitely."
Goodell deemed that the resolution of Peterson's legal case had no bearing on his status with the league and that the Vikings running back should remain suspended. The NFLPA argued that Peterson had served his time while on the commissioner's exempt list, as the previous code of conduct suggested, and that Goodell was attempting to employ a new set of personal conduct guidelines.
Hardy, like Peterson, spent nearly the entirety of the 2014 season on the commissioner's list.
If the same principle is applied to Hardy's suspension and his 15 games on the commissioner's exempt list can go toward his "time served" as outlined using previous code of conduct guidelines, then at the very least a reduction, if not an outright vacating, seems in order.
Per Robinson, if Henderson does determine during arbitration that Hardy's suspension should be reduced, the league is not expected to appeal.
