So much for a compromise. On Friday, NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart closed the door on a possible deal with Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. 
“We’re not looking to make a deal, we’re very confident our arguments will prevail in court,” Lockhart said (Twitter link via Ian Rapoport of NFL.com).
A Wednesday report indicated that Elliott’s camp and the NFL have held informal settlement discussions at each stage of the legal process. However, if there were settlement talks taking place, they were not being done directly with Elliott or anyone especially close to him.
One source close to Elliott surmised to Clarence Hill of the Star-Telegram that such talks may have been taking place between commissioner Roger Goodell and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. It’s not 100% clear if that’s the case, but, if those discussions did go down between Goodell and Jones, they were not fruitful.
For now, Elliott remains in limbo. Thanks to a temporary restraining order, he will be in action this Sunday against the Niners and the following Sunday against the Redskins.
Through five games, Elliott has 393 yards off of 105 carries. His 3.7 yards per carry average isn’t terrible, but it’s a far cry from his 5.1 yards per attempt as a rookie. San Francisco has allowed 112+ yards per contest, so there should be opportunities for him to crank things up at Levi’s Stadium.
Good for them, them have no reason to settle with him, their pockets are far deeper and by caving in would be counterproductive to their stance of running the thuggery out of pro football.
Them caving would cause such a social backlash it would be disastrous. The league has been saying all along that he committed some kind of abuse according to their findings. Backing out and negotiating now would send the wrong message to the fans on their stance of domestic violence.
If Elliott is cleared of all domestic violence wouldn’t it be disastrous for them as well? The longer it drags out the more Elliott looks better and nfl worse. With social media and tmz having footage of everything known to man, yet no video of Elliott in wrong.
Wasn’t Hardy cleared too? Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen and doesn’t mean his behavior didn’t cast a bad light on the shield.