Elliott not interested in discussing suspension
Ezekiel Elliott’s Dallas teammates alluded to the happy-go-lucky locker room personality they missed — along with the football skills — during the star running back’s six-game suspension.
Elliott wasn’t interested in sharing that side of himself, or much of anything else in a 70-second session with reporters that last year’s NFL rushing leader abruptly ended because he didn’t want questions about his time away from the team.
“All right, I’m done,” Elliott said after the fifth such question — why he didn’t want to talk about what he did in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he spent almost all of the six-game suspension over domestic violence allegations.
Elliott fought commissioner Roger Goodell’s decision for two months in federal courts in three states. His legal team won injunctions and other rulings that kept him on the field for eight games before abandoning the case when an appeals court in New York denied an injunction.
Soon after announcing that he was ending the appeal, Elliott went to Mexico. There were photos of him running on a beach, and apparently a planned documentary that has yet to be released.
“Just watch it,” he said. “Tell me the message you get.”
Elliott’s agents said six weeks ago that the former Ohio State star would release a “personal statement” before his return, but it never happened.
The closest thing was his only answer of substance Wednesday, when Elliott responded to a question about what he learned by saying he didn’t walk to talk about the episode and then thanking the Cowboys, his family and the fans.
“Especially the Cowboys fans who stuck by me through this tough time and have a little faith in me,” Elliott said. “I’m not going to talk about it anymore. This is the last time you’re going to hear me speak about it. So please don’t even ask me about it.”
The Cowboys went 3-3 without Elliott. To make the playoffs, Dallas must win its final two games, starting Sunday at home against Seattle, and get help from several teams.
Newton supports Panthers owner
Quarterback Cam Newton said embattled Panthers owner Jerry Richardson should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Richardson is under investigation by the NFL for sexual and racial misconduct in the workplace and announced Sunday that he’s selling the team. Newton said Richardson met with him and other team captains at Sunday night to inform them.
The QB says while he disagrees with any type of sexual misconduct, he has immense respect for Richardson based on their 7½-year relationship.
“Everything that I heard were allegations and nothing was actually proven,” Newton said. “It’s another person’s words against another person’s words. Needless to say, I still think extremely highly of Mr. Richardson. I don’t know none of the sources, names that have come out, so I am reaching to find it. But I take sexual assault extremely seriously — and I don’t want to offend anyone — but having a lot of allegations thrown at a person, I don’t think that is really fair.”