Ezekiel Elliott an All-Pro and the NFL rushing champion in 2016 during his rookie season for the Cowboys, where he plowed for 1,631 yards and 15 scores on the ground now, if you recall, has a serious problem. He was accused of domestic violence last July but thankfully was soon cleared of any investigation thanks to the fact that Columbus City Attorney’s office decided not to pursue criminal charges after thoroughly reviewing the evidence.
Thanks to that small “mishap” Ezekiel is in a bit of a tough spot because, although the domestic violence investigation has been pushed back for now, according to some League sources “some form of discipline could happen.” That is why ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who recently appeared on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio stated that he would be very “hesitant” to draft Elliott early in fantasy football drafts and the reason is the uncertainty that revolves around those domestic violence charges.
Other sources from the League have a slightly different opinion. They claim that they “don’t think anything” will happen in relation to Elliott seeing discipline. According to the same sources, a decision should come before the July 4th weekend, but since it is being “pushed back” nobody should expect “an answer here for a little while.” As we managed to find out Elliott’s team and the league and/or the NFLPA and the NFL have met several times, while the USA Today reported in June that the NFLPA turned over phone records and additional documents for the NFL’s investigation into Elliott.
To try to remedy the entire situation Ezekiel told the Dallas Morning News that he is “staying out of the way” and laying low but we all know that wasn’t going to last long, and we were right! In March this year, the 21-year-old pulled down a woman’s shirt and exposed her breast in public during a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dallas. You don’t need to be a smart man to figure out that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did not sound pleased after this event. Back then Jones gave a statement for the Morning News saying “There is not much that I want to say other than that was unfortunate and not good. It wouldn’t be the right emphasis one way or the other to get into any communications or dialogue since that happened. I wouldn’t want to say on communication, but I’m aware of the incident and I’m aware of the criticism.”
As it is cleared out, Elliott was not arrested on either of these two occasions, and he was just recently named the No. 7 player in the league on the NFL’s Top 100 players of 2017. What else could or will become out of this remains to be seen but one thing is for sure, a lot of arguments could be made for Elliott as the No. 1 pick in your fantasy football draft this season.
