Zeke: Could the favorable ruling somehow hurt the Cowboys?
By Reid Hanson
Could it hurt the Cowboys if the Zeke ruling only delayed the inevitable and pushed the six-game suspension to more important games?
The Cowboys received great news on Friday when a federal judge blocked the NFL’s suspension against Ezekiel Elliott. Ruling in favor of the NFPA, United States District Judge Amos Mazzant III’s 22-page ruling cited “fundamental unfairness…killing any possibility that justice would be served”
To Zeke, the Dallas Cowboys, and Cowboys Nation this is unequivocally a battle won, but all of us know, the war wages on.
Judge Mazzant essentially pressed the pause button. Not the stop button. The potential for a six-game suspension still very much exists. If the final verdict is in favor of the NFL, and not Zeke and the NFLPA, the suspension will proceed. The timing of that could be exponentially worse for the Cowboys.
If the case is concluded this autumn, Zeke could be suspended the last six games of the season, or even worse, into the playoffs. I think we’d all agree that would be considerably worse than missing the first six.
And that is what has much of Cowboys Nation nervous these days. I have this to say to you: rest easy, my friends.
Why this is great news
While Zeke is not out of the woods yet, this has to be seen as good news to all of us. First, the Federal Court system is notoriously slow. Additionally, any good legal team can delay proceedings to their advantage. To think this case could be wrapped up in 2017 is wildly unrealistic. This will drag on because it’s in Zeke’s best interest to drag it on.
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Many feel this type of proceeding is just delaying the inevitable. And they may be right. Remember, the court isn’t ruling whether or not Zeke is innocent, the court is ruling whether or not the NFL handled the case fairly. It’s still extremely possible Zeke will serve his six games, they just probably won’t happen until next season.
2017 has extremely high expectations for the Cowboys. This is a Super Bowl built team (provided they find a pass-rusher within) and can’t afford to squander this amazing opportunity. We have no idea what 2018 brings so the idea of striking while the iron is hot, holds very true.
Let Zeke be 2018’s problem. Maybe then the Cowboys will know more about Rod Smith and whether or not he’s capable of backing up Zeke. At the least it will give the Cowboys one more draft to find an attractive candidate for that backup role.
As mentioned many times before, Darren McFadden and Alfred Morris are nice but they aren’t ideal. At the very least, a delay lets the Cowboys better prepare for life without Zeke.
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The ruling to halt the suspension is good news no matter how you look at it. At the very least it puts the Dallas Cowboys back in the NFC driver’s seat this season and potentially dodges punishment altogether.