Will Zeke Suspension Lead To Trouble For NFL & Commissioner Goodell?
DALLAS (105.3 THE FAN) - The Fan's Dallas Cowboys insider Mike Fisher is following the Ezekiel Elliott suspension and appeal and has some scoop on the rumblings behind-the-scenes in the NFL.
1) Sources tell Fisher there is a movement afoot in the NFL boardrooms to persuade Commissioner Roger Goodell to back down here, to be open to the reduction of sentence. In a war, there can be a lot of losers. That list of "casualties'' could include not only Elliott's reputation, but the reputation of the Cowboys, Goodell and the NFL -- all because the commissioner committed the perceived mistake of labeling the player a "woman-abuser'' - a life-long damaging tag created without what many think is a lack of evidence.
2) Along those same lines, I can sketch out a couple of additional damaging scenarios: With the NFL calling Elliott a woman-abuser, doesn't Tiffany Thompson now have the ammunition to win a massive civil suit against the player and law enforcement in Ohio? And due to that same labeling, doesn't Elliott have the ammunition to sue Roger Goodell?
3) A wrinkle that can shift the control back to the commissioner, where the NFLPA so foolishly allows it to be per the CBA: In the CBA — and yeah, the NFLPA actually collectively-bargained all this dictatorship-level authority to the commissioner — Goodell can assign a player to his "Exempt List.'' That puts the player in timeout.
This can be in addition to the appeal and to an injunction, and in theory could usurp all of that.
How long can 'Player X' be in timeout?
"The Commissioner,'' reads the CBA, "has the authority to determine whether a player's time on the Exempt List will be finite or will continue until the Commissioner deems the exemption should be lifted.''
