NFL: Conspiracy theories around Elliott are false
Both sides of the Ezekiel Elliott discipline war are digging in.
Elliott was suspended for six games by the NFL after an investigation into a series of domestic violence allegations by former girlfriend Tiffany Thompson. The Cowboys running back’s appeal was heard this week, but new litigation could delay a final decision.
If a final ruling on the appeal is not made by 4 p.m. Tuesday, Elliott will be eligible to play in Week 1 against the Giants.
In addition, the NFLPA filed a lawsuit Thursday night, requesting a temporary restraining order after the appeal hearing for Elliott’s sixgame suspension ended. In the court document obtained by Deadspin, the NFLPA called the NFL’s investigation and the subsequent appeal “one of the most fundamentally unfair arbitral processes conceivable.”
It didn’t take long for the NFL to hit back at one of the lawsuit’s boldest claims — that there was a “conspiracy” to keep the opinions of director of investigations Kia Roberts from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell before he made his decision.
“I can tell you without any hesitation that this is false,” NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart told Pro Football Talk. “It’s categorically false that the information was kept from [Goodell].”
The NFLPA followed up the lawsuit with a request for an emergency restraining order Friday afternoon, stating it expects arbitrator Harold Henderson to deny Elliott’s appeal by Tuesday and it would inflict “irreparable harm” on the Cowboys running back.
Judge Amos L. Mazzant set the hearing for the NFLPA’s emergency restraining order petition for Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Sherman, Texas.
There were no formal charges filed with any of the incidents involving Elliott, the NFL’s leading rusher as a rookie in 2016, but the league said it believed Thompson.
The NFLPA lawsuit said Roberts testified during the appeal she would not have recommended suspending Elliott after her work on the investigation. Roberts testified that she interviewed Thompson at length twice and had four follow-up conversations but didn’t think the evidence was sufficient.