Sundays can bring out beast in DE Hardy

CHARLOTTE -- If the Carolina Panthers are going to get better in the second half of the season starting today in a 1 p.m. home game vs. Tennessee, their defense must step up.

If their defense is going to step up, talented but inconsistent defensive end Greg Hardy must make more big plays.

And if Hardy is going to make more big plays, he believes he must release the Kraken.

OK, you probably were with me on the first two statements and are wondering about the third. That sort of thing happens when you talk about Hardy, whose defensive end teammate Charles Johnson swears has the capability to be "the best defensive end in the league."

Really? The very best?

"Yes," Johnson said.

Johnson, who signed a six-year, $76 million contract this offseason with Carolina, has no hesitation about saying Hardy "has more ability than me." The mental and physical consistency, though, is not always there.

"He's in his own world sometimes," Johnson said. "But he's a freakish athlete."

Meet alter ego

One of the Panthers' most free-spirited players, Hardy is the kind of player who makes you say "Wow" at some point during most games and "Huh?" at some point during most conversations.

A Kraken, for those who don't make a habit of studying legendary beasts, is a mythological sea monster of enormous proportions. Many artists have drawn it to resemble a huge squid, large and mean enough to swallow ships.

Hardy considers a Kraken his alter ego, a part of his personality that always lurks below the surface.

"The Kraken is a giant monster that just demolishes everything that moves," Hardy said. "On Wednesday or Thursday, I go down in my subconscious. I find him, and I unlock the cage. About Saturday he usually comes out. Then he's always out on Sunday. I don't control him then. What he does when I'm not there, I don't know."

Hardy said all this with a smile, but this isn't a lark for him. He has called himself the Kraken so often in the Panthers locker room that his defensive teammates now take it as a matter of course, just part of what makes Hardy his offbeat self.

"He gets real crazy before the game," cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said of Hardy. "We just let him do what he wants to do. As long as he keeps making plays, we're fine with it. Keep calling yourself the Kraken."

He's still young

The Kraken, however, is only one part of Hardy's personality. One of the lowlights: He's prone to get very down on himself when he makes a mistake on the field.

That's why when I asked Hardy what sort of grade he would give himself for the first half of the season, he replied: "An 'F,' man. I've got a long way to go." I've asked players to grade their own performances many times, but I don't think I've ever heard one give himself a failing grade.

Said coach Ron Rivera of Hardy: "He beats himself up a little bit. I've had to go over and talk to him (during games). ... People say he's got a high ceiling. I think he's not even close to that ceiling. I think he and Charles Johnson, for however long we have them both, can be one of the better tandems in this league."

The Panthers have seen Hardy's potential flash from the time of his very first NFL game, when in 2010 he blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety and also caused a fumble against the New York Giants. He has three sacks this season, second on the team to Johnson.

College potential

Once, Hardy was considered a possible first-round NFL pick. He was a high school teammate in Tennessee of offensive tackle Michael Oher, whose life inspired the book and movie "The Blind Side." The two practiced against each other in high school and in college, where they both attended Ole Miss. They remain good friends.

Hardy also was a situational wide receiver early at Mississippi. He caught three passes there (all for touchdowns). He also played one season for the basketball team. And most impressively, he was a first-team All-SEC defensive end as a sophomore, with 10 sacks.

But Hardy's draft status plummeted because of questions about injuries - he had two foot surgeries and a broken wrist - and attitude. He once was suspended for two games for an undisclosed violation of team rules. Pro scouts sometimes used the phrase "takes plays off" to describe him.

Flashes of brilliance

Of course, that was said about Julius Peppers, too. And Hardy's dabblings in basketball and athletic, 6-foor-4, 277-pound build can make you think of Peppers sometimes. The play Hardy made this season when he sacked Jacksonville's Blaine Gabbert for a safety was a violent masterpiece, and he has had several others in a similar vein.

But there are the plays like the one near the goal line against Washington. Hardy was instructed to stay outside to not let mobile quarterback John Beck get around him on a scramble. Instead, he went inside. Beck circled past the spot Hardy vacated and scored on a 4-yard run.

"He's a young guy," Rivera said of Hardy, "and he'll get undisciplined. ... The other thing he's got to learn is how to do things - how to practice, how to study, how to prepare."

Hardy won no points from the new Panthers coaching staff in July when he wrecked his motorcycle outside of Knoxville, Tenn.

He badly skinned up the left side of his body, but X-rays revealed no broken bones. He was charged at the time with driving without a license and three other violations and said not long afterward: "I thought I was going to be dead."

Instead, Hardy showed up at camp in a protective boot, missed every practice in Spartanburg and still started the first real game of the season. He no longer owns a motorcycle, he said. "There's a time and a place for everything," he said, "and this is not the time or place for that at all."

What is it time for?

The Kraken, Hardy said. And while Hardy again unleashes his inner beast for games like today, his teammates and coaches will continue to hope that a player with monstrous talent demonstrates it more consistently.