{"id":27551,"date":"2017-08-16T20:51:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T00:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=27551"},"modified":"2021-03-18T19:17:10","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T23:17:10","slug":"nfl-players-union-odds-ezekiel-elliott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/08\/16\/nfl-players-union-odds-ezekiel-elliott\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL, Players&#8217; Union at Odds Over Ezekiel Elliott Situation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The rhetoric surrounding <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/ElliEz00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ezekiel Elliott<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/2017\/08\/11\/ezekiel-elliott-suspended\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">suspension<\/a> became fairly heated on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>It began when NFL executive vice president <strong>Joe Lockhart<\/strong>\u00a0released a statement condemning the league&#8217;s players association for allegedly attempting to discredit Elliott&#8217;s accuser via media channels. Not long thereafter, the union responded with a denial of any wrongdoing in the matter.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">New NFL statement <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KJ64RDHVB2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/KJ64RDHVB2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLprguy\/status\/897863415313698816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The public statement issued on behalf of every NFL owner is a lie. The NFLPA categorically denies the accusations made in this statement. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OFOGQY91Ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/OFOGQY91Ai<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFLPA (@NFLPA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLPA\/status\/897884316784631808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 16, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><strong>NFL, Players&#8217; Union at Odds Over Ezekiel Elliott Situation<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>It comes in the wake of the league&#8217;s decision last Friday to suspend Elliott six games in response to a series of off-field incidents involving the second-year running back. The most prominent of these are from an ex-girlfriend who accused Elliott of domestic violence on multiple occasions. Elliott continues to deny all such allegations.<\/p>\n<p>Late Tuesday afternoon, Elliott officially filed an appeal of the NFL&#8217;s action. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/897580836333248513\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to ESPN&#8217;s <strong>Adam Schefter<\/strong><\/a>, a hearing to address the situation will take place on August 29th. Commissioner <strong>Roger Goodell<\/strong> will not take part in the proceedings. Instead, former executive vice president <strong>Harold Henderson<\/strong> will preside over the case.<\/p>\n<p>Henderson, who has nine years of experience as an appeals officer, also heard the domestic violence cases involving <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=PeteAd01,PeteAd00&amp;search=Adrian+Peterson&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Adrian Peterson<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HardGr99.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Greg Hardy<\/a><\/strong>. In Peterson&#8217;s case, Henderson <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/nfl\/story\/adrian-peterson-minnesota-vikings-nfl-appeal-denied-by-harold-henderson-121214\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">denied his appeal of an indefinite suspension in 2014<\/a> due to an arrest for child abuse. But he did <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/story\/0ap3000000500985\/article\/greg-hardy-suspension-reduced-to-four-games\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reduce Hardy&#8217;s suspension from ten to four games<\/a> the following year.<\/p>\n<p>The crux of Elliott&#8217;s case may come from an exchange contained in the NFL&#8217;s 160-page report that ultimately led to his suspension. <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/documents-ezekiel-elliotts-accuser-admitted-talk-leveraging-sex-videos-rb-money-120034705.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Per Yahoo Sports<\/a>, his ex-girlfriend <strong>Tiffany Thompson<\/strong> communicated with a friend about the possibility of blackmailing Elliott over a purported sex tape. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/nfl\/dallas-cowboys\/article167069572.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting<\/a> that Thompson has made threats in the past about trying to negatively impact his career.<\/p>\n<p>Should Henderson uphold the entirety of Elliott&#8217;s ban, his return won&#8217;t come until week eight when the Cowboys face the Washington Redskins on the road October 29th. It means the rest of the team&#8217;s running back corps will need to step up as a result. That includes <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/MorrAl00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alfred Morris<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/McFaDa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darren McFadden<\/a><\/strong> who combined for just 330 rush yards in 2016. McFadden appeared in only three games late in the year due to an elbow injury.<\/p>\n<p>The Cowboys return to action on Saturday with the first preseason game at home against the Indianapolis Colts. Kickoff from AT&amp;T Stadium commences at 6:00 PM CT.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"U9C5sUTOQbhzGXwiK5ieOA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/830923604\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'U9C5sUTOQbhzGXwiK5ieOA',sig:'9EdB5dC_yOPCokuIMDsNgGuQoeayb4Trsravs86Ydzs=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'830923604',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NFL and the league&#8217;s players&#8217; union put out conflicting statements on Wednesday regarding the status of Ezekiel Elliott&#8217;s discipline case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":27557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,36],"tags":[49,258,734],"class_list":["post-27551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cowboys","category-nfl-news","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-ezekiel-elliott","tag-roger-goodell"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}