May 16, 2008

Despite rookie WR James Hardy’s recent brush with the law, the Bills don’t have buyer’s remorse over investing their second-round pick in him. “But they sure have buyer’s embarrassment,” one team insider told PFW. The former Indiana star allegedly pulled a gun on his father in the backyard of a woman’s house in Hardy’s hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., last weekend, and the homeowner who witnessed the incident immediately called the police. Because Hardy’s father, who shares his son’s first and last name, didn’t have any bodily harm — not to mention the fact that both father and son have dismissed the issue as an insignificant confrontation that was misinterpreted by the witness — the police have reportedly ended the investigation. But that’s not to say the Bills aren’t “mortified” about the allegation. Hardy was red-flagged by many teams as a having character issues during the pre-draft evaluation process, largely stemming from a May 2006 arrest of domestic battery for allegedly attacking his girlfriend and their infant son. But the Bills saw enough contrition in his owning up to the incident to go ahead and select him with the 41st overall pick. “When this latest incident happened, it was like a slap in the face,” the insider said. Already this offseason, the Bills have seen WR-PR Roscoe Parrish get arrested for drunken driving and DE Anthony Hargrove get suspended for the upcoming season for repeated violations of the league’s personal conduct policies.