[jwplayer 4anpIONY]
Ezekiel Elliott continues to catch lightning in a bottle. On Friday morning, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with arguments from the Cowboys star running back and the NFL Players’ Association that having him serve his suspension while the courts decided on whether or not the suspension showed fundamental fairness in its process. Therefore, the Court will allow Elliott to play on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Every day has been a new adventure in the quest to keep running back Ezekiel Elliott playing, and the last few days have been no different. After having its emergency motion to the Southern District of New York denied, the NFLPA moved to appeal the decision to deny a preliminary injunction to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
It was doubtful whether or not the motion will be heard prior to Dallas’ game this weekend against Kansas City. However the NFLPA filed a request for an administrative stay, and that was what was granted for Elliott.
Wednesday, in response to Judge Katherine Polk Failla’s motion to deny the NFLPA’s request for a preliminary injunction, the NFLPA filed an emergency motion with Failla to place a stay on her ruling. They asked for a decision on that emergency stay by 7 p.m. Saturday night, threatening to appeal to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of appeals.
They only had to wait about an hour for her decision. While the NFLPA made several good arguments about Failla’s view of irreparable harm towards Elliott being different than that of every other court in the process so far, she felt that allowing the emergency motion would simply be overturning her initial ruling from just a day earlier, which she wasn’t prepared to do.
Now, Elliott’s side has another legal victory, showing that their point about the process to basically convict Elliott by the league despite no formal charges has to be looked at by the actual court system. To be clear, this stay was not about the merits of the case, but about the fact that he shouldn’t be forced to miss games while the merits are being legally debated.
