WHY ELLIOTT AND COWBOYS ARE SINGING THE BLUES
Elliott becomes 16th Cowboys player suspended since 2014, and Jones’ perspective isn’t helping.
Jerry Jones went from wearing a yellow jacket at his Hall of Fame induction to singing the blues.
In the eyes of the NFL, his best player physically abused a woman on multiple occasions, and for that, Ezekiel Elliott won’t be in a Cowboys uniform for a good long while — at least six games, if you’re keeping score at home.
Appeal coming. Jerry incensed.
The NFL says it has enough evidence to warrant banishing the All-Pro running back for more than a third of the regular season without pay for a violation of its personal conduct policy. With a month remaining until their season opener against the New York Giants, the Cowboys are already taking
on the look of a wild-card team. Or worse.
Elliott was accused of domestic abuse by a former girlfriend, Tiffany Thompson, though he wasn’t formally charged with any crime. That didn’t prevent the league’s front office from determining through its yearlong investigation that it had more than enough evidence to put Elliott on the shelf.
Now his team’s owner, his coaches and his teammates will have to deal with the fallout. The league sent Elliott a letter advising him of its findings and told him its advisers believed “that there is substantial and persuasive evidence supporting a finding that (he) engaged in physical violence against Ms. Thompson on multiple occasions during the week of July 16, 2016.”
After just one season, Elliott has graduated from mischievous imp to NFL offender. To wit:
Jumping into the Salvation Army kettle to celebrate a touchdown was good holiday fun, right?
■Showing up at a marijuana dispensary in Seattle? Far from smart but not illegal.
The allegations that Elliott pulled down a woman’s shirt during a St. Patrick’s Day celebration? An eye-opener and an unfortunate harbinger of more serious issues for a 22-year-old who hasn’t yet struck the right balance in his off-the-field behavior.
While Jones ponders the loss of his running back and Elliott thinks about the $100,000 per game he won’t be making while he’s out, the biggest question coming out of Friday’s announcement was: Did he see this coming?
That answer is no if you believe what he was putting down at the start of training camp. Last month, Elliott was asked during a news conference if he expected to be suspended. The Cowboys also were reviewing Elliott’s actions, and the man signing the running back’s paychecks had something to say.
“There’s nothing,” Jones said. “I have reviewed everything. There is absolutely nothing, not one thing that I have seen that has anything to do with domestic violence.”
Then he doubled down during halftime of the Cowboys’ Hall of Fame game against Arizona last week.
“The domestic violence is not an issue,” Jones said during the NBC broadcast. “Zeke has had some other things that are being looked at. The domestic violence is not an issue.” Well ... The NFL was decades behind other major league sports in regard to its treatment of domestic abusers, and it has tried like heck to show it is concerned about the problem. After all, the world can’t un-see the tape of Ray Rice knocking his wife unconscious in an elevator.
So Elliott is paying the price — directly out of his wallet — although I wouldn’t be surprised to see his suspension reduced upon appeal.
To me, the Cowboys have become the modern-day version of the Oak- land Raiders, and Elliott’s suspension does nothing to diminish that growing perception. He became the 16th Cowboy to be sus- pended since 2014, and there could be more to come.
Linebacker Randy Gregory will miss the entire season after violating the league’s substance abuse policy for a third time, and defensive ends David Irving and Damontre Moore will sit out four and two games, respectively, for running afoul of the same policy.
Linebacker Damien Wilson (aggravated assault charge) and defensive back Nolan Carroll (DWI) also could be on the hook to miss time.
The NFL is far from perfect, but it differs from other major sports organizations in its ability to mete out punishments, even if the player hasn’t been charged by legal authorities. While there are conflicting accounts in police reports as to whether Elliott committed the offenses the NFL is punishing him for, a blind man could see trouble was coming his way sooner or later.
Turns out it was sooner.