The NFL has made its next move in the chess move it is playing against the NFLPA and Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. The running back is already past the hurdle of being allowed to suit up Week 2 against the Denver Broncos. The league has asked the Fifth Circuit court of appeals to stay the injunction that is allowing Elliott to suit up, and Elliott’s team is calling it all a PR move that isn’t centered around seeking justice.
Following a ruling by the Honorable Judge Amos Mazzant of the Texas Federal Court granting Elliott a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the six-game suspension given to him by the league, the NFL responded with a motion to have Mazzant grant an emergency stay on his own verdict by Thursday.
Seeing as Mazzant, a judge in the United States Federal Court System, likely doesn’t like to be told what to do, he didn’t rule on the NFL’s motion by the Thursday deadline they gave him. Instead, the league is now following up on their threat to appeal to the Fifth Circuit appellate court, hoping they will overrule Mazzant.
The league has asked the appeals court to rule by September 26 at the latest, and as soon as September 19. The 19th would be in time to rule Elliott out of the Cowboys’ Week 3 matchup against Arizona. The 26th (if the stay is granted) would start his suspension ahead of the game against the Los Angeles Rams.
**Read: How Cowboys will use Stack Slant, Inside Zone to attack Denver**
The two big things a defense needs to win an appeal is 1) a likely chance of winning and 2) proof of irreparable harm being done by the original ruling.
As NFLPA attorney Harold Kessler pointed out, however, the league may have lost its case for irreparable harm being done when they allowed Elliott to play Week 1 against the New York Giants. That showed the courts that if the suspension didn’t need to be served in the first six weeks, as originally stated, then it can be served at any time.
That likely forced the NFL to change its argument in their appeal, which sports attorney Daniel Wallach highlights in looking at the appeal’s table of contents.
While it doesn’t seem likely that the NFL will win their emergency stay, crazier things have certainly happened in this case. He will definitely be on the field in Week 2 against Denver, but Elliott’s status for the rest of the season continues to be constant concern as long as this battle wages on.
Elliott’s team has released a response to the motion.
Recently, the Fifth Circuit has only overturned 7.2% of the cases that reach its level.
If the fifth circuit rules in favor of the running back, however, the earliest he will serve his suspension will likely be in 2018 — if it happens at all.
