Plankton
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Life is about a series of choices.
And, with these decisions, there are ripple effects that can be felt across many groups.
Last night, it would appear that Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott ran out of runway in his quest to stay his suspension by the NFL for allegedly committing acts of domestic abuse against his former girlfriend, Tiffany Thompson. The Federal District Court of New York rejected Elliott’s and the NFLPA’s arguments to gain a preliminary injunction, which would have stayed Elliott’s suspension until the case could be heard before the Second Circuit.
Rampant throughout this situation, troubling on many levels, is the role that choices played in Elliott and the Cowboys ending up where they did.
What if the NFL properly handled the Ray Rice decision in 2014?
What if Elliott parted ways with Thompson after she falsely accused him of abuse the first time back in February, 2016?
What if Jerry Jones didn’t support Roger Goodell as stridently as he did in the Deflate-Gate case, and tried to curtail Goodell’s insatiable need to be judge, jury and executioner?
What if the NFLPA and their leadership placed a higher priority in the last CBA negotiations on ensuring that their rank and file were in a position to receive due process in disciplinary hearings to ensure that punishments would be issued on the merits rather than the whims and PR needs of the commissioner?
And, most of all, what if the NFL was more concerned about appeasing the fans that they have rather than the fans that they don’t?
These questions, as well as the choices that they entailed, led Elliott and the Cowboys to where they sit right now. And that is the Cowboys in a position where they will be missing their best offensive player during the toughest and most critical stretch of the season.
The NFL has clearly made a choice in how they view allegations of domestic violence. In their zeal to maintain their appeal across the female demographic, the NFL views themselves as having a need to present themselves as a tolerant, empathetic organization that leads the way in terms of the conduct of the players that they employ. By doing so, the NFL has made themselves a target – a target for every group out there that feels aggrieved in some way.
There is no other organization that is held to the same standard for behavior outside the workplace than the NFL and their players. And, this is due to the choices made by the NFL. With those choices come real consequences, and those consequences are sending ripples across the players, coaches, executives and owners around the league.
In 2014, a video was released on TMZ, of Ray Rice dragging his fiancée out of an elevator in a mode akin to a caveman dragging a woman around in the Stone Age. The video was disturbing, and required very little interpretation, especially when both Rice and his fiancée agreed that it was due to Rice striking her. The NFL casually (at best) pursued this investigation, and made a decision to suspend Rice for two games. Considering that, at the time, a suspension for failing three drug tests under the substance abuse program resulted in a four game suspension, the optics appeared very bad for the NFL. The league was demonstrating that physical violence against a spouse was less serious of an offense than smoking marijuana, a victimless crime. The league was eviscerated in the media and public for their casual approach to domestic violence, and in an effort to regain credibility in the eyes of people not necessarily interested in the NFL and the sport, ratcheted up their Personal Conduct Policy to address these issues in a more sensible manner. They hired Lisa Friel, a former prosecutor for the Special Victims unit of the NY District Attorney’s office to lead their investigative unit.
Goodell and the league proferred that a first time offense would result in a six game suspension automatically.
Then came Greg Hardy, who was charged, initially convicted and then had his conviction in a bench trial waived when he appealed for a jury trial. The alleged victim made herself unavailable to take part in a second trial after her original testimony showed inconsistencies, and the prosecution withdrew their charges. The NFL then chose to suspend Hardy for ten games for a first time offense, despite the six game standard for a first offense established earlier.
Then came Josh Brown, the kicker for the Giants who was brought up on charges of abusing his wife. Brown had to be separated from his wife at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii by NFL Security, and his wife was moved to a separate room for her safety. Brown’s wife refused to cooperate in the investigation, and the NFL once again returned to a casual investigative approach. Rather than push hard to get police records, they didn’t pursue the matter with any vigor. The NFL chose to suspend Brown for one game, despite their stated six game standard for a first time offense. It was found afterward that Brown had committed 20 acts of domestic violence previously, and the NFL was put on full blast by the media and women’s groups for not taking this seriously enough.
After being assailed in the press and by special interest groups for being soft on domestic violence, in an effort to protect their financial interests in the female demographic, the NFL was bound to not allow themselves to bungle another investigation, and would make an example of the next player who was accused of such an act.
Enter Ezekiel Elliott.
Elliott had the reputation of being a party boy at Ohio State, but was regarded as a top flight talent in a rich 2016 draft. In his preparation for the draft, he trained in Florida for the NFL Scouting Combine. His at the time girlfriend, Thompson, joined him in Florida. At some point, Elliott wanted her to leave and go back to Ohio. Thompson wanted to stay with him. During a disagreement, Thompson called the police to file a complaint about being abused by Elliott. The police questioned both parties, and did not find her claims to be credible, and did not file charges. At this point, Elliott had a clear view of the type of person that Thompson was, and could have broken off the relationship there.
He made the choice not to. It was a choice that he would grow to regret.
After Thompson called police again in Ohio five months later to allege abuse again, the Columbus DA investigated, and did not bring charges against Elliott due to conflicting stories and a lack of evidence.
The NFL saw an opportunity to please the groups that do not support them, and pursued an investigation. Thompson was all too willing to participate. Despite the feelings of the only investigator who interviewed Thompson six times, Kia Roberts, that Thompson lacked credibility and that Roberts recommended no suspension for Elliott, the league omitted the findings from their report on the matter, did not present this to Goodell, and chose to suspend Elliott for six games despite never being officially charged by any law enforcement arm.
The NFL made a choice to side with people who have no investment or interest in their sport over one of their star players when the evidence did not warrant doing so.
The NFL made a choice to brand Elliott as a domestic abuser, harming his earnings potential, putting contractual guarantees at risk, and affixing him with a tag that will be difficult to shake.
The NFL also made a choice to refer to Thompson as “a victim and a survivor”, despite no law enforcement arm as well as their own investigator not finding her claims to be credible at all.
And, with this choice, the NFL has opened up its workforce to be wrongly accused for the purposes of sidetracking and harming their players. Players now have to be wary of failed relationships or arguments resulting in false claims being made, and the NFL to buy it hook, line and sinker in an effort to appease those not within their reach.
Elliott has made some errors in judgment in his short time in the NFL, and those errors have served to cloud the public perception of his image. Whether you believe that it’s the errors of an immature young man, or a sign of something more, it’s safe to say that in the case involving Thompson, all Elliott was guilty of was associating with a questionable person.
And, the NFLPA, in their zeal to get a better work schedule and benefits for their players, left their players exposed to being convicted in the NFL’s eyes of crimes they didn’t commit, and have their appeals heard by the same person who convicted them in the first place. It was this oversight and blind acceptance that has led the players to where they currently sit. An agreement that predated Elliott’s time in the NFL is in a position to allow him to be sidelined, despite real credibility concerns with his accuser.
The choices outlined above all played a part in where the Cowboys and Elliott currently sit. In how Article 46 has been applied, the outcome isn’t necessarily surprising. Goodell views himself as The Enforcer, as shown in a front cover shoot he did for Time Magazine. In his hubris and arrogance, Goodell thinks that he can adjudicate issues more effectively than the criminal justice system can. With this judgment, Goodell has shown that he cares more about pleasing outside groups and appearing to be politically correct than he is with the image and reputation of his players.
Jones has chosen to be supportive of Goodell during his numerous missteps in the past. That support may be waning, but Jones has shown a greater allegiance to his money than anything else in his time in the NFL. Will anything change?
If it continues, for both the players and owners, it will prove a quote from Goodell to be correct.
Ignorance is not an excuse.
And, with these decisions, there are ripple effects that can be felt across many groups.
Last night, it would appear that Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott ran out of runway in his quest to stay his suspension by the NFL for allegedly committing acts of domestic abuse against his former girlfriend, Tiffany Thompson. The Federal District Court of New York rejected Elliott’s and the NFLPA’s arguments to gain a preliminary injunction, which would have stayed Elliott’s suspension until the case could be heard before the Second Circuit.
Rampant throughout this situation, troubling on many levels, is the role that choices played in Elliott and the Cowboys ending up where they did.
What if the NFL properly handled the Ray Rice decision in 2014?
What if Elliott parted ways with Thompson after she falsely accused him of abuse the first time back in February, 2016?
What if Jerry Jones didn’t support Roger Goodell as stridently as he did in the Deflate-Gate case, and tried to curtail Goodell’s insatiable need to be judge, jury and executioner?
What if the NFLPA and their leadership placed a higher priority in the last CBA negotiations on ensuring that their rank and file were in a position to receive due process in disciplinary hearings to ensure that punishments would be issued on the merits rather than the whims and PR needs of the commissioner?
And, most of all, what if the NFL was more concerned about appeasing the fans that they have rather than the fans that they don’t?
These questions, as well as the choices that they entailed, led Elliott and the Cowboys to where they sit right now. And that is the Cowboys in a position where they will be missing their best offensive player during the toughest and most critical stretch of the season.
The NFL has clearly made a choice in how they view allegations of domestic violence. In their zeal to maintain their appeal across the female demographic, the NFL views themselves as having a need to present themselves as a tolerant, empathetic organization that leads the way in terms of the conduct of the players that they employ. By doing so, the NFL has made themselves a target – a target for every group out there that feels aggrieved in some way.
There is no other organization that is held to the same standard for behavior outside the workplace than the NFL and their players. And, this is due to the choices made by the NFL. With those choices come real consequences, and those consequences are sending ripples across the players, coaches, executives and owners around the league.
In 2014, a video was released on TMZ, of Ray Rice dragging his fiancée out of an elevator in a mode akin to a caveman dragging a woman around in the Stone Age. The video was disturbing, and required very little interpretation, especially when both Rice and his fiancée agreed that it was due to Rice striking her. The NFL casually (at best) pursued this investigation, and made a decision to suspend Rice for two games. Considering that, at the time, a suspension for failing three drug tests under the substance abuse program resulted in a four game suspension, the optics appeared very bad for the NFL. The league was demonstrating that physical violence against a spouse was less serious of an offense than smoking marijuana, a victimless crime. The league was eviscerated in the media and public for their casual approach to domestic violence, and in an effort to regain credibility in the eyes of people not necessarily interested in the NFL and the sport, ratcheted up their Personal Conduct Policy to address these issues in a more sensible manner. They hired Lisa Friel, a former prosecutor for the Special Victims unit of the NY District Attorney’s office to lead their investigative unit.
Goodell and the league proferred that a first time offense would result in a six game suspension automatically.
Then came Greg Hardy, who was charged, initially convicted and then had his conviction in a bench trial waived when he appealed for a jury trial. The alleged victim made herself unavailable to take part in a second trial after her original testimony showed inconsistencies, and the prosecution withdrew their charges. The NFL then chose to suspend Hardy for ten games for a first time offense, despite the six game standard for a first offense established earlier.
Then came Josh Brown, the kicker for the Giants who was brought up on charges of abusing his wife. Brown had to be separated from his wife at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii by NFL Security, and his wife was moved to a separate room for her safety. Brown’s wife refused to cooperate in the investigation, and the NFL once again returned to a casual investigative approach. Rather than push hard to get police records, they didn’t pursue the matter with any vigor. The NFL chose to suspend Brown for one game, despite their stated six game standard for a first time offense. It was found afterward that Brown had committed 20 acts of domestic violence previously, and the NFL was put on full blast by the media and women’s groups for not taking this seriously enough.
After being assailed in the press and by special interest groups for being soft on domestic violence, in an effort to protect their financial interests in the female demographic, the NFL was bound to not allow themselves to bungle another investigation, and would make an example of the next player who was accused of such an act.
Enter Ezekiel Elliott.
Elliott had the reputation of being a party boy at Ohio State, but was regarded as a top flight talent in a rich 2016 draft. In his preparation for the draft, he trained in Florida for the NFL Scouting Combine. His at the time girlfriend, Thompson, joined him in Florida. At some point, Elliott wanted her to leave and go back to Ohio. Thompson wanted to stay with him. During a disagreement, Thompson called the police to file a complaint about being abused by Elliott. The police questioned both parties, and did not find her claims to be credible, and did not file charges. At this point, Elliott had a clear view of the type of person that Thompson was, and could have broken off the relationship there.
He made the choice not to. It was a choice that he would grow to regret.
After Thompson called police again in Ohio five months later to allege abuse again, the Columbus DA investigated, and did not bring charges against Elliott due to conflicting stories and a lack of evidence.
The NFL saw an opportunity to please the groups that do not support them, and pursued an investigation. Thompson was all too willing to participate. Despite the feelings of the only investigator who interviewed Thompson six times, Kia Roberts, that Thompson lacked credibility and that Roberts recommended no suspension for Elliott, the league omitted the findings from their report on the matter, did not present this to Goodell, and chose to suspend Elliott for six games despite never being officially charged by any law enforcement arm.
The NFL made a choice to side with people who have no investment or interest in their sport over one of their star players when the evidence did not warrant doing so.
The NFL made a choice to brand Elliott as a domestic abuser, harming his earnings potential, putting contractual guarantees at risk, and affixing him with a tag that will be difficult to shake.
The NFL also made a choice to refer to Thompson as “a victim and a survivor”, despite no law enforcement arm as well as their own investigator not finding her claims to be credible at all.
And, with this choice, the NFL has opened up its workforce to be wrongly accused for the purposes of sidetracking and harming their players. Players now have to be wary of failed relationships or arguments resulting in false claims being made, and the NFL to buy it hook, line and sinker in an effort to appease those not within their reach.
Elliott has made some errors in judgment in his short time in the NFL, and those errors have served to cloud the public perception of his image. Whether you believe that it’s the errors of an immature young man, or a sign of something more, it’s safe to say that in the case involving Thompson, all Elliott was guilty of was associating with a questionable person.
And, the NFLPA, in their zeal to get a better work schedule and benefits for their players, left their players exposed to being convicted in the NFL’s eyes of crimes they didn’t commit, and have their appeals heard by the same person who convicted them in the first place. It was this oversight and blind acceptance that has led the players to where they currently sit. An agreement that predated Elliott’s time in the NFL is in a position to allow him to be sidelined, despite real credibility concerns with his accuser.
The choices outlined above all played a part in where the Cowboys and Elliott currently sit. In how Article 46 has been applied, the outcome isn’t necessarily surprising. Goodell views himself as The Enforcer, as shown in a front cover shoot he did for Time Magazine. In his hubris and arrogance, Goodell thinks that he can adjudicate issues more effectively than the criminal justice system can. With this judgment, Goodell has shown that he cares more about pleasing outside groups and appearing to be politically correct than he is with the image and reputation of his players.
Jones has chosen to be supportive of Goodell during his numerous missteps in the past. That support may be waning, but Jones has shown a greater allegiance to his money than anything else in his time in the NFL. Will anything change?
If it continues, for both the players and owners, it will prove a quote from Goodell to be correct.
Ignorance is not an excuse.