Dallas Cowboy defensive end Greg Hardy, who last year was arrested and charged with attacking and threatening an ex-girlfriend, apologized on Twitter Saturday night after images of the incident appeared online.
On Friday afternoon, Deadspin published the images after obtaining them during an investigation, along with hundreds of pages of records in the case.
Hardy, who was a member of the Carolina Panthers at the time, was accused by then-girlfriend Nicole Holder of slamming her against a bathroom wall, tossing her on a bed littered with assault rifles, "choking her and threatening her life during an altercation at his apartment," according to ESPN.
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ESPN notes that Hardy was convicted on charges of domestic violence against Holder during a bench trial in 2014. He appealed, seeking a jury trial, but the case was dismissed in February 2015 after Holder stopped cooperating with investigators.
Hardy signed a one-year, $11.3 million deal with the Cowboys in March 2015 after returning from the NFL commissioner's exempt list in September 2014. He also received a 10-game suspension for violating the personal-conduct policy in the Holder incident, but the suspension was reduced to four games on appeal.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Friday said that the team did not have access to the photos when it signed Hardy and that it continued to support the athlete.
The NFL, which supposedly instituted a tougher policy on domestic violence after the 2014 Ray Rice elevator episode in Atlantic City, N.J., on Friday declined to comment on the photos. The NFL Players Association has yet to respond to ESPN's request for comment.