After a domestic violence incident kept him off the field for most of the 2014 season, defensive end Greg Hardy landed with the Dallas Cowboys last season. His production (six sacks in 12 games) and notable sideline spat with an assistant coach eventually proved to the Cowboys he was not worth the trouble, and Hardy has yet to find another team willing to take a chance on him this offseason.

Hardy sat down for an exclusive interview with ESPN’s Adam Schefter, with clips shown on Monday’s edition of ‘NFL Live’, and here’s a sampling of what he had to say when his domestic violence situation came up.

“I’ve never put my hand on ANY women,” Hardy said, in a partial transcript posted by ESPN. “In my whole entire life, no sir. That’s just not how we’re raised. As you can tell, like I said again, it’s the Bible belt. It’s just something that’s, I wouldn’t even say frowned upon, just something that’s nonexistent in most southern homes.”

I watched the part of the interview ESPN aired on Monday, and Schefter followed up by pointing out the presence of photographs of injuries to Hardy’s accuser after the alleged incident. Here’s how the unemployed defensive end responded to that.

“I will stop you there and say that I didn’t say that I didn’t do anything wrong,” Hardy said. “That situation occurred and that situation was handled but … saying that I did nothing wrong is a stretch but saying I am innocent is correct. Yes sir.”

Hardy was never technically found innocent or guilty if that’s the angle that’s desired. He merely pursued a jury trial in North Carolina, and authorities could not track down his accuser in order to push the case forward. The case going away, perhaps due to a financial effort on Hardy’s part, does not equal innocence. Yes I’m assuming guilt, and yes, I know that’s dangerous.

My first reaction to watching Hardy talk was the way he referred to Schefter, referring to his interviewer in a patronizing way as “sir.” The second is that he should not be talking at all, and he’s getting bad advice from somewhere if he was told he should. Talent tends to trump almost everything in sports, but as Pro Football Talk’s Darin Gantt pointed out, Hardy had seven sacks in a two-game burst in 2013 and he has 33 sacks in his other 73 career games. Being a bad person who invites questions about on-field effort is a double-whammy that’s hard to reconcile, so Hardy’s NFL career could easily be over.