Ezekiel Elliott is going to be suspended. That’s been apparent for some time now, based on his series of unfortunate events, including alleged domestic violence.
Now, reports are coming out that indicate that suspension could be announced as soon as today, which would make sense as a Friday news dump.
Via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk:
It may come Friday, it could be bumped into next week. Regardless of the timing, the prevailing view in league circles is that Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott will be suspended under the Personal Conduct Policy.
One league source characterized an Elliott suspension as “definite.” The specific duration of the suspension isn’t known, however.
…
Elliott is accused of five incidents of domestic violence over a six-day period in July 2016. Last Thursday night, appearing in the NBC booth during the Hall of Fame game, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones suggested that a suspension could be imposed for unspecified incidents other than the domestic violence claim.
In March, Elliott was videotaped pulling a woman’s top down at a St. Patrick’s Day parade. More recently, he allegedly broke a DJ’s nose at a club in Dallas.
Will the suspension be announced today? Maybe! The NFL does like to dump things on Friday, but they see these reports too, and if anything Roger Goodell’s league office is so soft and weak-willed that they might be floating it out there just to gauge public reaction to get a sense of how much punishment they should level. That’s somehow not impossible.
Still, Elliott will likely get something like 4 games, the Cowboys will go through a whole rigmarole about how he’s a good teammate and everyone can learn from mistakes and everyone deserves a chance to change, and then he’ll come back and play well and they’ll pretend it never happened.
It’s a pretty standard NFL blueprint, at this point.
[PFT]
