Roger Goodell Suspends Zeke Elliot
Zeke Elliot is suspended for 6 games.
STRAP IN BOYS THIS IS GONNA BE A FUN FIGHT!
I was expecting a 1 game suspension at most. I think most were. The NFL was not going to heavily punish one of the biggest money making teams in the nation by suspending it’s new big star, right? The NFL would never go after a major market team with flimsy evidence just to make a point, right? oh…
But really I have legit no idea what to expect from here on out and I don’t even know what to believe at this point. On one hand, the NFL actually kind of seems to have done it’s job here. The statement by the NFL actually reads like a group of people actually did the job it was supposed to do. It almost reads like they put a more thorough investigation into the matter than the Columbus cops did. Considering the idea of Ohio State Local Bias, that might even be true. 6 Games is the NFL’s automatic policy for incidents of domestic violence. While there was no criminal charges and no convictions, the NFL is not bound by the law, and can punish players accordingly like any business. In a vacuum, the NFL looks like they might have gotten this one…right?
Except the NFL has no goddamn credibility!
The NFL was in possession of a video of Ray Rice punching his wife unconscious and gave him two games while bringing the hammer down on pot smokers. When found out, the NFL committed double jeopardy and punished Rice for the same crime twice. The NFL and Roger Goodell, in a desperate attempt to make a power move, dragged Tom Brady, the Patriots, and the league through a two year slog of an eventual backfiring attempt to look tough for PR purposes. The NFL, which proudly proclaimed a new, strict policy on DV, promptly ignored that policy pretty much at every turn, most notably when they almost seemed reluctant to punish old and completely expendable kicker Josh Brown. I could go on. The NFL has such a lack of credibility that I could be shown hard evidence that the NFL found of Elliot hurting Tiffany Thompson and I would still wonder about the credibility of their punishments. I’ll admit it, after I sided with the NFL when Deflategate broke and was proven wrong, I am completely and utterly reluctant to give the NFL any benefit of the doubt, ever. With that track record how can I?
The thing is it’s still a little murky, too. We have video evidence of the St. Patrick’s Day incident, which is enough for a big fine at minimum if you ask me, but Zeke’s victim has also been caught apparently lying about one of the 4 domestic violence incidents? Elliot’s argument seems to be hinging on that for the moment. If she lied once, couldn’t she lie the other 3 times? It’s flimsy but it’s enough to strike some doubts, especially in people who don’t want it to be true (Cowboys fans). Jerry Jones looks like he’s going to fight it because of course he would, the Cowboys would never stand for such atrocities as punishing a player for something they may not have done.
It feels like we just hit a big moment in our next big scandal and all we can do is strap in. Zeke will appeal and probably get the 2 game reduction, but I think we’re in it for the long haul fellas so grab that popcorn and lets see where this thing takes us. As a Giants fan, I am delighted and eager for the show.
In the meantime, let’s enjoy die hard fantasy owners all shitting themselves with anger over the news.
6 games? Yeesh, it’s not like he did something heinous like exercise his First Amendment rights to express a controversial opinion. Domestic violence never hurt anyone, unlike those poor Troops who I assume all died because Kaepernick doesn’t like flags.
Oh yeah, forgot about Kaepernick supporting a genocidal dictator. Unemployment for him sounds good enough.
Genocide? I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Killing a whole buncha people? Yeah, check. Castro’s done that.
whoa wtf did i miss that infowars article
Google it and you’ll get multiple sources. Which one to choose is up to you anyway.
It’s real simple, though – I have some strong political views, and I shut the hell up about them at work.
No chance this one doesn’t go to court just like Deflategate did. Zeke’s too valuable to the Cowboys for them not to go to the mat, especially if Zeke ends up being found not guilty in the DV cases. Like you said, the NFL’s statement reads like they actually did a thorough investigation, but given how inanely the league has acted in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of that ends up being a crock. Can the league be subpoenaed by the prosecutor in the DV case? Because if they do have the evidence they claim to, that’d be a knockout punch, and it’d let us see it for ourselves since I’m pretty sure his case is public record.(Not sure on this one, pretty sure it varies depending on state law where his trial is being held)
On an unrelated note, did the Ravens build their stadium on an Indian burial ground or something? We’re not even to week one, and it feels like half their roster is already on injured reserve. Are they using broadswords in drills or something?
Funny you bring up Deflategate, as the precedent that case set will make it really tough for the Cowboys and Zeke to overturn that suspension in court.
Or scream about racism afterwards.
The DV case has been dismissed for lack of evidence (and of course the negative evidence from the text messages and friends affidavits).
A prosecutor can subpoena any material witness it wants, but a defense attorney is also free to attack the credibility of the witness and the evidence presented by that witness.
As far as the Ravens, I think after 20 years the football gods have finally heard our cries of anguish and cursed the franchise that was stolen from us by a man who was given every reason to stay by the city and fans and left because he was ashamed that he was losing money while owning all revenue rights to the stadium and playing to a full house.
This was in reply to Clarificator.
Honestly, I don’t get people still being bitter about the move. If we weren’t that far removed from it sure, but it’s been decades. I thought it was weird that there were still Ravens fans bitter about the Colts move, I thought it was weird that there were still Texans fans bitter about the Titans move, etc., etc.
Again, if we weren’t very far removed from it then yeah, I’d get it, and I can understand still hating Modell, but it’s been over 20 years, I don’t understand still hating the franchise. Nobody who works for the 2017 Ravens, as a player or coach or whatever, would’ve been an employee of the ’95 Browns, just like nobody working for the 2017 Colts would’ve been an employee of the ’83 Colts, or any other team that moved in the last century. It just feels petty after a certain point, like someone stalking their ex years after you’ve both broken up and moved on to new people.
Ozzie Newsome
We’re not talking about any old ex here, we’re talking about the emotionally abusive super psycho stalker ex that cheated on and left you with someone that could be your clone, then proceeds to follow you EVERYWHERE.
Now while I can’t speak for the Colts or Oilers, I can speak for my Browns, and with us it wasn’t just that he took a premier franchise away. In their first eighteen years of existence, the Browns claimed eight professional titles, and yes you just read that right, EIGHT TITLES in EIGHTEEN years. The Browns were a dynasty that no other team has ever come close to reaching.
Now enter Art Modell, who managed to purchase a majority stake in the team and forced out founder and future Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown, who would as a result of this found the Bengals and set the record for an expansion team to reach the playoffs. The year after Modell forced out Brown, the team won their last title to date, and only one under Modell. The following off season, Modell mismanaged his players so badly that the best RB of all time, Jim Brown, retired rather than put up with Modell. Now we’re going to skip ahead to the nineties, as the Browns followed a pattern we’re they’d go from falling just short of the Super Bowl, before having a couple years of rebuild, but they were never down for long.
Enter Bill Bellichick, brought on to revive the franchise after a lull from kicking out Marty Schottenheimer, following one down season after repeated AFC heartbreaks. Bellichick overhauls the entire roster, as he would later do at New England, and gets the Browns back on track, reaching the playoffs after an 11-5 season. The following season, the Browns were legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and the city was in talks with Modell to renovate or replace the stadium. A couple weeks into said season, it’s announced that the Browns would move after the seasons end, and that he had not been negotiating with the city in good faith. The move was so sudden that the Commissioner Tagliabue was taken aback by it, and promised to replace the team. After promising Bellichick that he would remain the coach and continue his building process, Modell fires him at the end of a gut punched season.
Now the team has left, the coach fired, and we are left with nothing but a promise that the team will return. A few years pass, the now Ravens get better, and we have a team again, but the new Browns are worse than they had ever been at any point in their history.The very next year, the Browns continue to suck and the old team now has a Super Bowl, a super bowl that should have been OURS. On top of that, as the years have passed, the Browns continue to be worse than the old version ever was, and the fanbase of our arch rivals, the Shittsburgh Squealers, have infested the Akron/Canton area, just as Michigan did during the tenure of COOPERFACE, all while the tam remains one of the top in terms of revenue, with one of, if not the largest international fanbase. On top of this, one of Modell’s reasons for moving was so he could hand the team down to his son, who wasn’t well liked up here in the first place, he ended up bungling the teams finances so badly again that the NFL forced him to sell the team, so it was for nothing on that front.
TL;DR – If it were as simple as the team moved, then yeah we wouldn’t still be pissed.
These are all pretty fair points for hating Modell, but like I said, I have no issue whatsoever with people hating Modell because of what he did with the Browns. What I don’t get is why that extends to a team he sold over a decade ago. John Harbaugh was still a college coach in 1995. Joe Flacco was ten years old. Half their team was in preschool. The only connection between the team that left Cleveland and the team that currently resembles a triage unit is a stadium address.
Again, hating Modell over how he mismanaged the Browns, completely fair. He’s been out of the picture for 13 years though, and under the dirt for five. He doesn’t have any more relevance to the 2017 Baltimore Ravens than Marge Schott has with the 2017 Cincinnati Reds.
The only connection between the 1995 Browns and the 2017 Ravens is Ozzie Newsome. Kinda significant. Also everyone hates the Pats because they keep beating their team when they aren’t even division rivals, and Baltimore keeps beating Cleveland as a team they have to face twice a year. That seems like a fair reason for Browns fans to hate the Ravens. Also as an aside, go hate your own division rivals rest of the NFL. You don’t have any reason to hate the Pats if you ain’t a Phins, Jets or Bills fan. Colts fans get a pass.
Glad I picked up Darren McFadden
The police dropped all charges (or did not press any I forget)
This one is going to be interesting.
I have a felling Zeke will only be suspended for opening night, kinda like how Joe Hills was only suspended for 1 week even though he was supposed to be suspended for 4 weeks
Arena Football Recap: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i45C3EAUDyw
“Roger has to make hard calls,” Kraft said, “and more often than not, you’re going to have a season or you’re going to have a period of time where those go against you as an owner in the NFL.”
That’s a thousand dollars worth of popcorn!
Don’t understand the inconsistency. Josh Brown literally admitted to the Giants’ owner that he habitually abused his wife. Got a one-game suspension because the NFL said their investigators had “insufficient evidence”. Figure out your discipline rules, Goodell.
Honestly, no one gives a shit about kickers. Just spitballing.
Right now McFragile is probably hurt already. The wind changed direction on him too fast. Guy’s made of spun glass.
The popular Cowboy fan theory is that Jon Mara is orchestrating all of this to screw the Cowboys, just fyi. Also, I found it interesting that one of the leagues main arguments was basically “you can’t prove that you didn’t do it.”
goodell doesn’t strike me as a villain here
too few devil horns
I’m torn. I’m a Cowboys fan, so naturally, I don’t want Zeke to be suspended. This desire is made stronger by the fact that no civil charges were filed and the victim’s lying and threats to end Zeke’s career. All the points you made about the NFL’s lack of credibility is just the cherry on top of this shit-sandwich.
On the other hand, his actions on Saint Patrick’s Day are shitty, so he definitely needs to be punished for that. And domestic violence is a growing problem in the NFL, so if Zeke attacked this woman even one time, than the punishment is justified.
I hate it as a Cowboys fan, but as a decent human being, I hope he has to serve at least two games for the St. Patrick’s Day assault, if nothing else. I also hope that this goat-rodeo serves as a “come to Jesus,” moment for Zeke, and he gets his shit together for the future. No matter how much I love football and the Cowboys, talent should never be an excuse for being a shitty human being.
Well, that came out of left field.
Haven’t been following this issue all too much, but this sounds weirdly harsh. I thought there was no conclusive evidence regarding the domestic violence case? Dave mentioned it already, but is this another case of overreacting on someone just to look good for the outside world, much like how the Cowboys kicked Lucky Whitehead(lol, what goes round goes round…)
Whatever. Let the fight begin then, let’s go all the way. Maybe we’re on to Deflategate 2.0. Maybe we shouldn’t wish for Deflategate 2.0 though, since that might imply the Cowboys would win the SB this season or the next…
In other news… Roberto Aguayo has been released. Dave’s last comic about him( http://www.thedrawplay.com/comic/roberto-aguayo-faces-the-pressure/ ) was a prelude to the crisis.
Lol Bucs.
And I can’t help feeling bad for Aguayo; if that laughable 2nd-round pick didn’t happen he might have had an OK if completely unimpressive career in the league. Being thrust into the limelight totally ruined him.
The NFL doesn’t need conclusive evidence; just like with Deflategate a “more probable than not” is enough and the 6 game suspension is exactly what the rules say he should get.
Sometimes it feels like they don’t need evidence. Almost as if it’s more of a gut feeling. Actually, after looking into it, I am suspending the NFL Owners and Front Office for 6 games for engaging in behavior detrimental to the integrity of the game.
After reviewing some suspect evidence presented in during the appeal of my initial sentencing, I realized the error of my ways. To show how impartial I can be, I have decided to suspend the NFL indefinitely. I will now go to a BBQ with some friends where we will beat our significant others.
Another little update about Aguayo: He’s been claimed off waivers by the Bears.
The Bears’ current kicker, Connor Barth, is the guy the Bucs kicked off the team because they drafted Aguayo.
This might be potentially interesting… well, as interesting as kicker battles could get, that is.
Evidence? We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence!
That means cowboys go 9-7 this year. The six games without Zeke are losses and so is the 2nd Giants game in the season. Remember this comment at the end of the season
I hope you’re right, down with Cowboys. Maybe then we’ll get to see Bayless hanging himself but who am I kidding? He’s too stupid to die…
Exactly, he’s so stupid he might just hang himself when he was originally playing with a piece of rope