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Confused? Here are key questions, answers and deadlines about what comes next for Ezekiel Elliott

FRISCO -- The twists and turns of Ezekiel Elliott's legal battle to vacate his six-game suspension by the NFL continued Wednesday even as the Cowboys running back returned to the practice field with his teammates at The Star.

While Judge Amos Mazzant weighs whether to grant Elliott an order that will let him continue to play beyond Sunday's season opener against the New York Giants -- Mazzant said he will rule by 5 p.m. Friday -- representatives for Elliott and for the NFL filed supporting documents for and against the motion. The NFL also argued that the case should be transferred from federal court in the Eastern District of Texas to the Southern District of New York, which has traditionally been favorable to the league.

New court filings Wednesday included the reasoning of arbitrator Harold Henderson for upholding the NFL's suspension of Elliott. Henderson's denial of Elliott's appeal was announced late Tuesday and will be considered by Mazzant.

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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued his discipline of Elliott on Aug. 11 for what the league found to be three incidents of causing physical injury to former girlfriend Tiffany Thompson in July 2016 in Columbus, Ohio, Elliott has denied and fought the claims.

Some key questions and answers about what comes next:

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What is the next important decision?

By 5 p.m. Friday, Mazzant will rule on whether to grant Elliott a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.

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Elliott's representatives believe Mazzant will rule on a TRO, which would give Elliott a reprieve from his suspension for an additional couple of weeks until a hearing is held to determine if he should receive an injunction, which would probably hold up for the remainder of the 2017 season as the case works through the courts. Daniel Wallach, a sports law expert, believes Mazzant will rule Friday on the injunction, as the parties already faced off for a 21/2-hour hearing Tuesday evening at the Paul Brown United States Courthouse in Sherman.

The NFL has already agreed to allow Elliott to play Sunday against the Giants, but his eligibility beyond that rests on Mazzant's ruling.

What are Elliott's chances of getting the order?

Courts generally grant broad discretion to arbitration rulings. However, Mazzant continued to question the NFL about a series of events that he said goes right to the issue of fundamental fairness for Elliott. Kia Roberts, the NFL director of investigations, conducted all of the interviews with Elliott's accuser, Tiffany Thompson, and had doubts about her credibility. Roberts did not attend the meeting with Goodell when discipline was discussed. Henderson did not require Thompson, Roberts' notes about her interviews with Thompson or Goodell to be examined in last week's arbitration hearing in New York.

The NFL argues that Roberts' concerns were included in the 160-page Elliott Report that she co-authored.

Mazzant on Tuesday called the cumulative effect of the matter something he couldn't ignore.

Will the case be transferred to New York?

Wallach doesn't believe so because Elliott and the NFLPA can claim they filed first and Mazzant has already invested serious time on the matter. The NFL is arguing that it is the one that properly filed suit in New York after Henderson's arbitration ruling was made late Tuesday and that the NFLPA's filing was premature because it was filed before Henderson ruled. The NFLPA had not yet responded to the NFL's suit in New York by Wednesday evening.

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What are the alternatives for the loser?

Either side could appeal in the Fifth Circuit and seek an immediate stay until the matter is resolved. The criteria are similar to what Mazzant is already weighing.

What happened Wednesday?

Henderson's reasoning for upholding Elliott's suspension through the NFL appeal process became part of the record that Mazzant will consider. Henderson noted that NFL investigators Roberts and Lisa Friel expressed surprise that they were not asked to make a recommendation on discipline in their report, but he said that their roles "fit squarely" into the process outlined in the NFL's personal conduct policy.

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Elliott and the NFLPA argued that Henderson's ruling "does not change anything about the evidence of fundamental unfairness, irreparable harm, or balance of hardships set forth in the TRO Motion or the Petition. It simply reflects the inevitable outcome of arbitral proceedings in which the arbitrator had already rendered final rulings denying Petitioners access to the witnesses and evidence they needed to meet their burden of challenging whether there was 'credible evidence' to justify the Commissioner's discipline."

Henderson wrote that it's long been settled that the commissioner has broad discretion. He included that the Elliott case may be the first time the new disciplinary process was fully deployed when there were no criminal charges. "If this is in fact a first effort under the new procedures they got it right," Henderson wrote.

But what matters now for Elliott is whether Mazzant agrees.

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