Why Ezekiel Elliott Is Gonna Play Out This Season

Suspension on, suspension off, suspension on, suspension off - that's been the crazy timeline in a domestic violence disciplinary process that has rocked football and our court system. Being that Ezekiel Elliott's guilt or innocence is not being judged in a case that's become about whether the NFL's arbitration process is fair, football fans, and especially those fantasy fans all appear to just wanna know two things, 1. is Zeke playing? 2. How long? The stars have aligned for Zeke in this crazy legal process. He miraculously got his suspension put on hold with an "injunction" (legal term for hold - see ya learned something) after his legal team filed in Texas before the arbitration process was even finished. The court of appeals fixed that by vacating that hold because it decided the team filed too early and suspension was back on. As Zeke's legal team scrambled to get another hold in a NY court, it just happened to be a bye week - lucky for Zeke cause it bought them time to file motion papers and about 111 exhibits (thousands of pages) in a NY court. Just so happens that the Judge assigned to the NY case was on vacation and the stand in Judge felt uncomfortable stepping on the other Judge's toes and making a full ruling on the NFLPA's request to put the suspension on hold. So, what did he do? He granted Zeke a temporary restraining order, putting suspension on hold for two weeks until the vacationing Judge returns (presumably all relaxed and tan). There will be a hearing on October 30th where the assigned Judge (a she named Kat - the Honorable) will decide whether to extend that hold until the case is heard and decided. If she says yes then it pretty much means he will play out the rest of this season. Why? Because there will be a discovery process, hearings, motions, potential trial and testimony which can take months and if not, then the NFLPA will easily use legal maneuvers to delay this through end of season. If you came to this site to get my expert opinion, here it is: there's no need to wait until October 30th to find out if he's gonna get that permanent injunction- he will. This means he will definitely play out this season. How do I know? Because the subbing Judge paved the way for that very result in two ways. First, the Judge who issued the temporary hold wrote in his opinion that Zeke met the standard for a temporary restraining order and then said that the standard is exactly the same for a permanent hold. The standard is quite simply the Judge asking himself this: If I don't put a hold on this suspension, will Zeke suffer irreparable harm (harm that can't be fixed through monetary compensation) and if I do grant the hold, will the NFL suffer irreparable harm? The Judge decided that Zeke would be harmed if he didn't stop the suspension because it would allow discipline before the court could decide if the NFL's arbitration process was fair. Judge said, the case hasn't been heard and there were sufficient and significant questions about the f