As horrific as the photos of the woman Greg Hardy mercilessly beat are, the way the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys handled the situation may be even more appalling.

Everyone knows that the NFL wants absolute control over everything. They don’t even try to hide it. They want control over everything from the players wearing pink to show their support for cancer victims down to GIFs that someone might put on social media. But when it comes to a player mercilessly beating his girlfriend, the NFL, for some reason, shows leniency.

Even after that misguided leniency, Jerry Jones and the Cowboys signed Hardy, because to these people the end product is more important than any decency they might have as human beings. Look at Ray Rice, for example. Is he out of the league because of what he did? No, he is out of the league because he was a replaceable player.

Sure, there’s a major problem with the judicial system in America. The woman did not press charges because she was afraid for her life, and therefore Hardy avoided big time trouble with the law. This being said, there should be laws that allow for someone to press charges on another’s behalf in circumstances where a victim’s life could be at risk. Some states already possess laws like this, but it seems like common sense would lead us in this direction nationwide.

And, to be blunt, if you’re of the mindset, “She should have pressed charges anyway,” you’re an idiot. She was legitimately afraid for her life. People don’t think rationally in those situations, and you should not expect anyone who has been assaulted any number of times to be anything other than afraid.

But even more concerning than the failures of the American judicial system is where are the Cowboys players standing up and saying, “This isn’t right. I don’t want to be on a team with someone like Hardy.” No one finds it strange that NFL players were perfectly fine with attacking Michael Sam publicly for being homosexual, but are staying quiet when a player merciless beats another person? If Tony Romo came out and said, “I want Greg Hardy off this team,” it would be done by this time tomorrow.

And the worst part of this whole situation is that none of this is even the worst part of the situation.

Hardy’s victim was quoted as saying, “It doesn’t matter; they aren’t going to do anything to him anyway.”

The worst part of the situation is that she was right, and domestic violence victims everywhere are looking at this as an example of why that little voice in the back of their mind telling them that speaking out won’t matter is right, too.

Taylor Sturm is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.