when embattled Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was put on the Exempt/Commissioner’s Permission List Wednesday, his immediate future appeared clear. He will not be allowed to play or practice with the team until his legal situation is settled. And because his jury trial on domestic violence charges is scheduled for Nov. 17, the Panthers can plan on not having his services until then, at least.But as we have found out the last week and a half, it would be silly to assume anything in the new NFL landscape.“Greg is part of this football team. We’ve done nothing other than grant him a leave of absence,” head coach Ron Rivera said after the Panthers met with Hardy and his agent Drew Rosenhaus. “He’s still being paid. He’s still part of this football team. In due time, he will be back here, and we can get this resolved.”Hardy will be paid handsomely while he sits out. His $13.1 million franchise tag costs the Panthers $770,000 per week for a player not even on the active roster.But a lost season could mean the loss of a potentially big contract for one of the best pass rushers in the league. So Hardy has plenty of incentives to get his legal situation figured out sooner rather than later.“I understand that I need to step away from football right now and take care of this legal matter,” Hardy said in a statement released by the Panthers. “I am entitled to due process and my day in court, and that’s where my focus should be.”The expectation has been that Hardy’s trial will not be heard until 2015, but that was before the world saw the tape of former Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his then fiancé.After Rice was released and suspended indefinitely by the league, the national spotlight quickly landed on the Panthers. They’ve since taken heavy criticism for actions they took — and didn’t take — after Hardy was arrested in May.In July, a North Carolina judge found him guilty of two counts of domestic violence against his ex-girlfriend. But Hardy immediately appealed, and he was afforded his right to a jury trial.Soon after, with the legal process still very much unsettled, the Panthers announced they would not enforce possible discipline until the case was finished in court. So Hardy went through training camp and the preseason like normal. Then he played in the Panthers’ Week 1 win at Tampa Bay. The next morning, TMZ released the Rice tape.”At that time we felt it was the right thing to do,” general manager Dave Gettleman said Wednesday, when asked why the Panthers allowed Hardy to play in the opener. “There’s no rule book for this. There’s no magic list that we can hit checkboxes with and for that to bring us to the right answer.”Last Friday, when the Vikings quickly deactivated running back Adrian Peterson after he was indicted on a charge of child abuse, outside pressure grew on the Panthers, who were planning on playing Hardy against the Lions. Rivera eventually made an 11th-hour decision to pull Hardy from the lineup, but a new cycle began with a new week.Rivera said Monday that Hardy would practice this week. Rivera also left open the possibility Hardy could play in front of a national TV audience against the Steelers. But Wednesday put an end to what would have been more drama-filled days leading up to Sunday.Of course, the cloud of controversy is unlikely to disappear just yet. Through Sunday, the Panthers will continue to be questioned both on national TV, and inside the locker room.“I think you just want the right resolution. I think that’s the magic question right now: What is the perfect scenario for everyone? That’s for other people besides us to make those decisions,” tight end Greg Olsen said.Hardy’s spot in the lineup will be filled by a rotation of Wes Horton, Mario Addison and Kony Ealy. The trio isn’t as dynamic as Hardy, but as they showed against the Lions, they can play a bit as well.So it appears the young ends should have until November to rack up experience. It could be longer than that. Or perhaps Hardy will rush to get his case resolved sooner so he can get back on the field quicker.Wednesday’s news may have appeared to be a period at the end of controversial sentence. But ultimately, it may have just been a comma in a story that is still unfolding.”There are a lot of circumstances that we don’t know. There are a lot of situations that we don’t understand,” Rivera said. “I really just hope people understand we’re doing the best we can under the circumstances that we have and we’re trying to get this right. And at the end of the day, we have to come up with solutions to make that this does not happen again.”