CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Carolina Panthers placed defensive end Greg Hardy on the inactive list for Sunday's home opener against the Detroit Lions. 
 
 The move came two days after coach Ron Rivera said he planned to start the 2013 Pro Bowl selection, who was found guilty in July by a Mecklenburg County judge of assaulting and threatening ex-girlfriend Nicole Holder. 
 
 "I know y'all are wondering [about Greg Hardy]," Rivera said after Carolina's 24-7 victory against Detroit. "I made the decision this morning. It was my decision because it was in the best interest of the Carolina Panthers." 
 
 Editor's Picks Newton: Panthers are bigger than one player Playing on Sunday without Greg Hardy, the victorious Panthers proved yet again that they're bigger than one player, David Newton writes. 
 
 Rivera said the decision wasn't made without discussion with others in the organization. He wouldn't expand on why the decision was in the best interest of the Panthers, and he limited the number of questions on Hardy. 
 
 Rivera said the league is dealing with difficult issues and so are the Panthers. He stressed letting the process play out. 
 
 "My rationale was it was in the best interest of the Carolina Panthers," Rivera added. 
 
 Rivera said Hardy will return to the lineup, but he wasn't specific. 
 
 "He will play as we go through this process," Rivera said. "Hopefully, we get it right." 
 
 Players throughout the Panthers' locker room said they want Hardy back on the field. Asked how they balance that between the public outcry for him not to be allowed to play, center Ryan Kalil tried to put it into perspective. 
 
 "Everybody has strong opinions about the topic at hand," said Kalil, a team captain. "I know I feel very strongly about it. At the same time, however you feel about the situation or the individuals, it's a mistake to start grouping them all into one big group. 
 
 "So everybody has the right to their each individual case, and I think that's what's happening here. For us, the biggest thing is not to get caught up in all the sensationalism and really let the facts play out before we start passing judgment and having opinions about it publicly. 
 
 Two days after the Panthers said they would let the process play out regarding Greg Hardy and his domestic violence case, the team deactivated the star defensive end for Sunday's game. AP Photo/Patrick Semansky 
 
 "That's what we've decided as a team, and that's what we're doing. And the biggest thing, at the end of the day we still have a job to do." 
 
 Defensive end Charles Johnson was adamant he wanted Hardy back. 
 
 "Of course [we want him back]," he said. "Why would you ask that question?" 
 
 Told because people around the country are questioning whether Hardy should be allowed to play, Johnson said, "That's my teammate. I'm going to rally around my teammate." 
 
 Linebacker Thomas Davis said Carolina going 2-0 with starting quarterback Cam Newton missing the first game with fractured ribs and Hardy sitting for the second game shows "it's not about one man around here." He also said he would welcome Hardy back. 
 
 "Absolutely," Davis said. "He's one of our playmakers. He's one of the guys that makes our defense run. We feel we definitely are a better defense with him on the field. That's one of those things that we have to sit back as a team and players and let the situation play itself out and see what happens. 
 
 "In the meantime, we've got to continue to come to work and do what we're paid to do, and that's play football." 
 
 Tight end Greg Olsen said it's all about compartmentalization. 
 
 "I don't know what to say about it right now," he said. "There's a lot going on that needs to be sorted out on a lot of different fronts in our league right now, but we also have a lot of good guys, too." 
 
 Cornerback Antoine Cason understands why some are making the case that there was momentum building toward Hardy being inactive after what happened with former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. 
 
 "That definitely can be said," he said. "That definitely can be assumed. However, I don't even know the specifics on either of those situations even. It's tough all the way around and everyone has their opinions about it. I really don't know and being the guy in those situations, I just feel for them. Who knows what happened and how it's reported, you never really know so like I said, for my teammate, just be by his side." 
 
 The San Francisco 49ers were aware of the Panthers' decision to deactivate Hardy but still listed defensive tackle Ray McDonald among their 46 active players Sunday night against the Bears. McDonald was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence on Aug. 31. 
 
 Rivera said Friday the team hadn't changed its stance on Hardy, who is appealing the verdict with a jury trial tentatively set for Nov. 17. Hardy's attorney insists the case won't be heard until 2015 because of the court's case backload. Under North Carolina law involving defendants convicted of a misdemeanor, the jury trial will take place as if no previous trial took place. 
 
 "We are in a process, and we're letting the process play its way out,'' Rivera said Friday. "Because of that, we're following through with the situation, set of circumstances. We're not trying to do anything below board or way above board.'' 
 
 The decision to deactivate Hardy comes after the Ravens released Rice and the NFL placed the running back on indefinite suspension after video appeared of him knocking out then-fiancée Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City casino elevator in February. It also follows the Vikings' decision to deactivate Peterson after he was charged with reckless or negligent injury to a child. 
 
 The Rice tapes put the focus back on domestic violence and Hardy. It intensified on Hardy after he missed Wednesday's practice to meet with the attorney handling the case. 
 
 Then on Wednesday night, when receiving the Echo Award Against Indifference, team owner Jerry Richardson had tears as he addressed critics who called his stance on Hardy's case lenient. 
 
 "Standing before you tonight, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge an issue weighing heavily on our sport and our society,'' Richardson said. "When it comes to domestic violence, my stance is not one of indifference. I stand firmly against domestic violence, plain and simple.'" 
 
 Sources told ESPN.com that Patriots owner Robert Kraft contacted Richardson to lobby other NFL owners for support of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who has come under fire for his handling of Rice's case. Richardson has agreed to help Kraft. 
 
 Mario Addison, a fourth-year player out of Troy, started in place of Hardy. 
 
 The Panthers still have to pay Hardy his salary for this week. As the team's franchise tag player, he is scheduled to make $13.1 million this season. ||||| Panthers Star Greg Hardy DEACTIVATED Over Domestic Violence Conviction 
 
 Panthers Star Greg Hardy -- DEACTIVATED ... Over Domestic Violence Conviction 
 
 The Carolina Panthers have decided to DEACTIVATE superstar defensive endbecause of his domestic violence conviction -- a decision that was made by the team Sunday morning and it seems fairly obvious it's all because of thesituation.Back in July, a North Carolina judge found Hardy guilty of attacking his girlfriend and threatening her life during an altercation in May -- but the Panthers and the NFL decided not to punish Hardy while he appealed the decision and pursued a jury trial.Translation -- THEY SAT ON THEIR HANDS AND DID NOTHING FOR MONTHS.But now, in the wake of the Ray Rice scandal -- and a public outcry against the NFL for taking too light of a stance against domestic violence -- the Panthers have decided to deactivate Hardy for today's game.As for the incident, Hardy's ex had claimed he beat the living crap out of her and threatened to kill her during a jealous late-night rage.The woman had testified that Hardy got angry that night when he heard a Nelly song at a nightclub -- which angered him because the woman had briefly dated the rapper when she was on a break from Hardy.Story developing ... ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Jonathan Dwyer of the Arizona Cardinals was arrested in a domestic violence investigation Wednesday as the N.F.L. continued to find itself under siege for its handling of such cases. 
 
 Before Dwyer’s arrest, the Minnesota Vikings reversed course, placing Adrian Peterson, a star running back facing child abuse charges, on the exempt/commissioner’s permission list. The Carolina Panthers did the same with Greg Hardy, a defensive end appealing a domestic violence case. 
 
 The Phoenix police, in a statement, said detectives arrested Dwyer, a running back, in Tempe on charges of aggravated assault in a domestic violence case stemming from two separate episodes at his home in southeast Phoenix in late July. 
 
 Dwyer, who was deactivated by the Cardinals on Wednesday night, denied that any physical assaults took place, the police said. They said he was being booked at the Maricopa County Jail on a count of aggravated assault causing a fracture, a count of aggravated assault involving a minor, two counts of criminal damage and a count of preventing the use of a phone in an emergency. 
 
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 The victims were said to be a 27-year-old woman and an 18-month-old child. The police said the woman left the state with the child after the episodes. Police then received the complaint in the case on Sept. 11. 
 
 The Cardinals said they learned of the allegations Wednesday when notified by the police. “We will continue to closely monitor this as it develops and evaluate additional information as it becomes available,” the team’s statement said. 
 
 An N.F.L. spokesman said Dwyer’s case would be reviewed under the N.F.L.’s personal conduct policy. 
 
 Earlier Wednesday, mounting pressure from sponsors and the public forced the Vikings to bar Peterson from practices and games while he deals with his arrest in Texas on charges that he beat his 4-year-old son. 
 
 The decision, announced in an email at 12:47 a.m. Central time, came 38 hours after the Vikings said Peterson would rejoin the team. His reinstatement drew criticism from fans, women’s groups and sponsors, who said the team was insensitive to domestic violence and child abuse. 
 
 “We made a mistake, and we needed to get this right,” Zygi Wilf, a Vikings co-owner, said at a news conference Wednesday. “It’s important to listen to our fans, the community and our sponsors.” 
 
 After consulting with Peterson, the N.F.L. and Peterson’s agent, Peterson was placed on the exempt/commissioner’s permission list, where he will remain until his legal situation is resolved. Peterson will receive his full $11.75 million base salary but cannot take part in team activities. 
 
 Wilf’s brother Mark, a co-owner and the team president, denied that the league pressured the Vikings to make the move. 
 
 “This is our decision 100 percent,” he said. “We were aiming to get it right, and we feel we got it right.” 
 
 Nike said Wednesday it had suspended its contract with Peterson and made his jerseys unavailable online. 
 
 “Nike in no way condones child abuse or domestic violence of any kind and has shared our concerns with the N.F.L.,” the company said in a statement. 
 
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 The Panthers’ Hardy agreed to go on the same exempt list Wednesday as he appeals his domestic violence conviction. He was found guilty in July of assaulting and threatening to kill his girlfriend. His trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 17. Hardy played in Week 1, was deactivated last Sunday and had continued to practice with the team. He will also receive his full $13.12 million base salary. 
 
 “It’s been handled as well as we could,” Panthers Coach Ron Rivera said at a news conference Wednesday. 
 
 Peterson is accused of injuring his son while disciplining him with a tree branch, commonly known as a switch, last May in Spring, Tex. Peterson turned himself in to Montgomery County authorities early Saturday morning and was inactive Sunday for Minnesota’s 30-7 loss to New England. Free on $15,000 bail, he is scheduled to make his first court appearance Oct. 8. 
 
 In response to Peterson’s reinstatement Monday, fans who ran a Vikings online message board shut it down. And the Radisson hotel chain, based in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka, suspended its Vikings sponsorship. Marilyn Carlson Nelson, the former chairman of Carlson Inc., which owns Radisson, was a co-chairwoman of the bid committee that landed the 2018 Super Bowl for Minneapolis. 
 
 The backlash accelerated Tuesday. Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat who helped the Vikings receive public financing for their new stadium, and Senator Al Franken, also a Democrat, criticized the decision. Dayton called Peterson’s actions “a public embarrassment” and demanded the team suspend him. 
 
 Fran Tarkenton, a Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Vikings to three Super Bowls, told Fox News that he was embarrassed by the team’s original decision to let Peterson play. 
 
 Castrol Motor Oil terminated a sponsorship contract with Peterson. A spokesman for U.S. Bank, whose president, Richard Davis, a co-chairman of the Super Bowl bid committee with Carlson Nelson, said the company was monitoring the situation closely. An appearance by Vikings players at a Minneapolis orphanage was canceled. 
 
 Mark Wilf declined to address whether the team underestimated the backlash from the decision to reinstate Peterson. “I don’t want to Monday morning quarterback what it was,” he said. 
 
 A Radisson spokesman, Benjamin Gardeen, said in an email Wednesday that the company’s sponsorship remained suspended. On Monday, the Radisson logo appeared on a banner behind Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman as he discussed Peterson’s reinstatement. A different banner at Wednesday’s news conference had no such logos. 
 
 Vikings cornerback Captain Munnerlyn, one of the few players willing to comment Wednesday, said the club’s reversal surprised him. Munnerlyn said Peterson did nothing wrong, and his own mother disciplined him the same way. 
 
 “I don’t think it’s fair at all,” Munnerlyn said. “I think he should be able to play. He hasn’t been convicted of anything. All these allegations, or this and that, pictures out, but he hasn’t been convicted of nothing.” 
 
 The Vikings’ handling of the situation inflamed a national debate about domestic violence in the N.F.L. Last week, a graphic video showing Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancée led Commissioner Roger Goodell to indefinitely suspend the former Baltimore Ravens running back. 
 
 Late Tuesday, Rice appealed that penalty, arguing that he should not have been suspended twice for the same episode. In July, Goodell said Rice would have to sit out the first two games of the regular season.
– Greg Hardy is the Carolina Panthers' franchise player, a Pro Bowl defensive end who will make $13.1 million this season. He will also sit out today's home opener after the Panthers abruptly reversed course and deactivated him this morning, reports ESPN. The reason? Hardy was convicted in July of assaulting and threatening the life of an ex-girlfriend; he's currently appealing that conviction, and is likely to return to court in November. Both the NFL and the Panthers had opted not to punish Hardy while he appealed, notes TMZ, a decision that was reinforced by the Panthers' head coach as recently as Friday, when he confirmed that Hardy would start today. "We are in a process and we're letting the process play its way out," Ron Rivera said Friday. Hardy's deactivation occurs after the Ravens released Ray Rice and the Vikings deactivated Adrian Peterson.