Like most people, I had a ton of questions when I heard that currently unemployed NFL defensive end Greg Hardy is pursuing a career as an MMA fighter. How the hell did a 28-year-old just three years removed from a 15-sack season end up here? What could Hardy have become had he avoided trouble off the field, namely an ugly domestic violence incident in 2014 and a cocaine arrest last month.
Oh, and the more superficial but obvious question: will Hardy be any good as a fighter?
I immediately thought back to a night in 2008 when I watched Hardy, then a star D-lineman at Ole Miss, lose to a 17-year-old seemingly half his size during a fraternity boxing event in Oxford, Mississippi.