His name has been brought up quite a bit. It’s been quite the year for Ezekiel Elliott. April of 2016, he’s selected fourth overall by the Dallas Cowboys and has an immediate impact on the team. Along with Dak Prescott, Zeke helped lead the Dallas Cowboys to 11 straight victories, an NFC East division title and the top seed in the NFC playoffs. He has established himself as a top five running back in the game today. Despite all the success, we’ve heard the negative things about him as well. He’s been linked to a domestic violence case and the NFL had been investigating for a full year. Today, the league stepped in and suspended him for the first six games of the year for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
It’s safe to say the Cowboys have an Ezekiel Elliott issue. He’s been linked to some other issues off the field as well. At a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dallas this past March, he pulled a woman’s shirt down and exposed her bare breast. Let’s also talk about the incident where he was caught driving over 100 miles per hour and visiting a marijuana shop in Seattle. Jerry Jones has stated that all this attention is “not good” and that Zeke is still trying to adjust to this new fame and lifestyle. I think there’s a bigger issue than trying to adjust. Here’s the problem: The core of the Dallas Cowboys, they are still young and when you think of core players on any team for any sport, you think of guys who have been with the franchise for many years and are true veterans of their sport. Each team in the NFL has that type of player where he can pull a guy aside and set him straight when he’s acting up and this type of player has control of the entire locker room and when he speaks, people listen. The Dallas Cowboys don’t have that type of player so where exactly is the leadership at? This wouldn’t happen in New England because of the tight ship they run out there and you can even take it back to the Ray Lewis days in Baltimore. Ray was the established veteran within that locker room. The Strahan days with the Giants and even the Tampa days with Derrick Brooks. All of them were leaders, the Cowboys have yet to get that type of player and that’s an issue.
Elliott is a 22-year-old kid that needs to mature. If he continues to act the way he does, he’ll be out a job, out the league and possibly in more trouble than what he’s already in. He also has to realize that when you aren’t with your team on the field, you are a representation not just of the team you play for, but the league as well that you are playing in and this is a bad look for the NFL.
