Jones said he’s applied lessons from his own life to Hardy, who’s been accused of domestic violence in the past. “Not fighting physical. Just two big bears who were just going at it. Neither one of them wanted to lose”.
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For Oher, it was his ability to protect the quarterback’s blindside, which turned into a 2009 Hollywood movie.
Now their worlds literally will collide at a time when most of America will be eating leftover turkey and dressing. “He really gets after it. He has a great instinct in getting to the quarterback”. He’s going to play hard.
“I haven’t seen that from him”, Romo said. How Oher handles that matchup will have a lot to do with how successful Carolina is offensively.
Former Rebels coach Ed Orgeron used Hardy as a receiver on occasion, and he caught a 23-yard touchdown pass his first season. Outside linebacker Thomas Davis called him a “game-changer”.
Oher plans to cram as much film study as he can into this short week, but he said he can’t prepare for just one Hardy move. “The games I watched he does different things. Background, I just know he’s a talented athlete”.
This will be the second time Oher has faced Hardy during the regular season.
Jones insisted Hardy was on his best behavior during training camp, but since he’s returned from suspension, Hardy issued controversial comments about Tom Brady’s wife, has been combative with the media and temporarily changed his Twitter bio to indicate he was innocent of the domestic violence allegations. Oher didn’t want to talk about that now, either.
Hardy followed Oher to Oxford, Miss., where he played in 15 games for the Rebels’ basketball team as a freshman. He said two years ago he could beat LeBron James one-on-one. The former All-Pro defensive end has received very little public support, so to hear his team’s quarterback endorse him as a good teammate might go a little way in altering public opinion on Hardy.
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Cam Newton was teammates with Hardy for four seasons in Carolina.
