Raiders sign Aldon Smith, set up visit with Reggie Nelson:

The Oakland Raiders have had one of the best starts to the new league year, as they’ve bolstered spots all over their roster with smart signings and without drastically overpaying.

The trend continued on Monday when the team brought back linebacker Aldon Smith. When available, Smith is one of the better pass rushers in football. The problem is the Raiders don’t know exactly when Smith will be available, as he’s still serving a one-year suspension stemming from the DUI, hit and run and vandalism charges which caused his release from the San Francisco 49ers.

The Raiders swooped in and signed the troubled linebacker after his release from the Niners, showing faith that Smith could turn things around off the field. That faith has now been extended, as the team signed Smith despite his suspension, to a 2-year, 19.5-million-dollar deal which will be prorated for the games Smith can play in. He’s expected to be eligible for reinstatement around mid-November.

We wrote about how difficult it would be this upcoming season for opposing offensive coordinators to have to game plan around blocking a couple of versatile, disruptive linebackers like Khalil Mack and Bruce Irvin after the former Seattle Seahawks linebacker signed with the Raiders.  Adding a player of Smith’s ability late in the season could give the Raiders the kind of pass rush that quarterback’s nightmares are made of.

As Oakland announced the signing of Smith, it seems as if it is far from the end of their free agent spending, as we also learned Monday that the team is bringing safety Reggie Nelson in for a visit.

Nelson makes sense for the Raiders, who were sniffing around former San Diego Chargers safety Eric Weddle before he signed with the Baltimore Ravens. The Raiders have had one of the most productive offseasons, adding players like Irvin, Kelechi Osemele, Sean Smith and others, and adding Nelson to a much improved roster would be like icing on the cake.

Reggie McKenzie has been criticized for some of his past moves, and rightfully so, but he’s done a fantastic job of rebuilding a Raiders roster which seems on the brink of being very good.

LeSean McCoy will not be charged in night club brawl:

Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy learned Monday that he will not face charges after he and three other men were alleged to have been in a bar brawl with Philadelphia area cops. To be clear, we’re being pretty nice throwing the word alleged in there since there was ample video evidence of the fight between Shady’s crew and the off-duty Philadelphia police officers.

Video evidence shows the fight most certainly happened, however the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office says there was “insufficient evidence” to charge any of the seven men (LeSean McCoy and his three friends or the three off-duty officers) with a crime.

While much of the fight is on video, there is no evidence of who started the fight, therefore giving the self-defense, defense for everyone involved as Assistant District Attorney Mike Barry explained.

“If you don’t know how the fight started, you can’t meet the burden to get beyond self-defense,” Barry explained. “You’ve got a hole in your case.”

But that explanation wasn’t sufficient for president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5

John J. McNesby who saw the decision as an obvious mistake and said this is “a vicious assault on off-duty police officers by a rich athlete and his friends goes completely unpunished.

“Serious and permanent injuries were inflicted on these officers as a result of a brutal assault captured on film, but a season-ticket-hunting District Attorney refuses to do his sworn job and prosecute the attackers.”

This whole thing is great news for McCoy, who is unlikely to be disciplined by the NFL for the event now that charges will not be filed. While the Fraternal Order of Police is unhappy, it is difficult to prove that the Bills running back and his friends instigated the incident, so this was likely the right decision. Of course, that’s coming from a guy who writes about football, not a guy who covers legal proceedings.

At the end of the day, it’s hard to imagine the league disciplining a guy for an incident where even the district attorney’s office says they can’t prove he wasn’t defending himself.

Greg Hardy says he never put his hands on a woman:

Greg Hardy sat down with ESPN’s Adam Schefter, and of course took the opportunity to talk about how he’s a changed man, and how he’ll never hurt anyone again in his life, right?

Of course not. This is Greg freaking Hardy we’re talking about here.

No, instead the defensive end with an opportunity to try sell himself to NFL clubs took the opportunity to once again prove that he’s an absolute piece of crap. I should probably have a more sophisticated way to say it, but that’s the way Hardy’s words leave you feeling. Like, oh my god, did that piece of human excrement really just say that?

Shockingly, Hardy took his time with Schefter to try to convince the ESPN reporter and the rest of us that he’s never once in his life, laid his hands on a woman.

“I’ve never put my hand on ANY women,” the idiot told Schefter.”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.”

“You say you did nothing wrong, you’re innocent and yet the pictures of her that surfaced would seem to suggest a woman who had some type of physical contact, Schefter replied in almost disbelief. “How do you explain that?”

Despite Schefter reminding the moron of the mountain of evidence against him, Hardy, while admitting doing some wrong in the incident, continued to plead his innocence.

“I will stop you there and say that I didn’t say that I didn’t do anything wrong. 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.”

A lot of NFL players get support from former teammates when these kinds of situations are alleged, but Hardy hasn’t seen such support, which is only further evidence of just how bad a person he is. His ex-teammates clearly don’t look at Hardy as a good guy who made a terrible mistake as some view a guy like Ray Rice. Instead, Hardy’s former teammates always express relief when he’s gone.

One of his former teammates, Steve Smith Sr. took to Twitter to express how laughable he found Hardy’s claims.

https://twitter.com/89SteveSmith/status/717080608564985856/photo/1

As despicable as Hardy’s words were, hopefully they can prove to be the final death knell for this idiot, and no NFL team will be foolish enough to ever let him tarnish their legacy like the Dallas Cowboys did a year ago. You certainly won’t find anyone inside of Jerry’s World who says they’re glad he was there.