Friday United States District Court Judge Amos Mazzant ruled in favor of Ezekiel Elliott by granting the Cowboys running back an injunction against the NFL‘s six-game ban. From here it looks like Elliott will be eligible to play in Dallas’ Sunday night opener against the New York Giants. In fact as it stands right now Elliott is eligible to play in every game this season baring the NFL finding an court to reverse Judge Mazzant’s decision.
This latest development in the ongoing Elliott saga comes days after Arbitrator Harold Henderson upheld the NFL’s original six-game ban prompting the NFLPA to sue the League on the running back’s behalf. The ban came amid the NFL’s investigation into allegations of domestic violence against Elliott’s former girlfriend last summer. These suspicions were fueled this summer when the running back’s accuser came forth with pictures of bruises on her arms and hands.
However Mazzant’s ruling was never based on the evidence in-hand but the growing feeling that the NFL’s investigation had it’s fair share of holes.
Mazzant determined that the NFL’s ruling on Elliott was “fundamentally unfair” citing the League denying the sharing of evidence during the investigation, ignoring Kia Roberts’ differing opinion and even the Deflategate nonsense that engulfed the NFL offseason two years ago.
Thus, even though the Court is not deciding whether the NFL engaged in a conspiracy to achieve a certain result, the actions of the NFL have to be considered in the Court’s analysis of whether Henderson gave Elliott a fundamentally fair hearing. The Court recognizes and acknowledges that under ordinary circumstances, the denial of witnesses and documentary evidence falls within the discretion of the arbitrator. Brady II, 820 F.3d at 545 (citing United Paperworkers, 484 U.S. at 40); Am. Eagle Airlines, Inc., 343 F.3d at 405. However, the set of facts presented in this case are everything but ordinary and are such that the denial of key witnesses and documents amounts to serious misconduct by the arbitrator.
However if Deflategate has told us anything it’s that the NFL probably isn’t going down in this without saving some if not all face. They’ll continue to take this to court much like they did with Tom Brady.
