Legal battle made Ezekiel Elliott "stressed out," new Cowboys' documentary shows
The Ezekiel Elliott legal battle served as a major storyline for the Dallas Cowboys in 2017.
The standout running back received a controversial six-game suspension from the NFL for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, and then endured a lengthy legal battle that had several twists and turns before eventually serving it.
"All or Nothing: The Dallas Cowboys," an eight-part series airing on Amazon Prime on April 27 offers an inside look at how the team handled it throughout the season.
The most vivid moment is when Elliott admitted being "stressed out" going into the Week 4 contest vs. the Los Angeles Rams. Elliott shows up late to the meeting and tells the coaches he hasn’t been sleeping well.
"Everything all right? Why haven’t you been able to sleep?" offensive assistant Stephen Brown asks.
"I’ve just been stressed out," Elliott said.
Running backs coach Gary Brown then tells Elliott to get a shower and get ready for practice.
After Elliott leaves the room, Gary Brown tells Stephen Brown: "I know I’m mad that he’s late and he’s stressed out and I understand why he’s stressed out. I get out. People are saying you’re fat in the media, you lost a step … suspension [expletive] is still looming, you know what I’m saying? I get it. I get it. At the same time, we’ve got to demand better."
This happened a couple weeks after Elliott had the worst game of his career in Week 2 at Denver. He rushed for 8 yards on nine carries.
He was then ripped by Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson for quitting on his team for walking to the sidelines on an interception, instead of trying to make a tackle.
The coaching staff wasn’t pleased with the performance with coach Jason Garrett calling the entire team “soft.” He also didn’t like Elliott’s performance.
"He’s one of the best natural competitors I’ve ever been around," Garrett said. "And this is the one time it was like, ‘Who the hell are you?’ You didn’t see him."
Said Brown: "He’s gotta get his [expletive] together. This is [expletive] embarrassing and it’s a reflection on me. I’ll [expletive] get him right. I’m sick of this [expletive]."
Owner Jerry Jones weighed in on the matter, too, addressing that the ongoing legal drama had to be affecting Elliott. This matter is something that hung over Elliott’s head since July 2016 when an ex-girlfriend accused him of domestic violence.
The Columbus, Ohio city prosecutor’s office never arrested or charged Elliott with a crime, but the NFL felt it had enough evidence to hand him a suspension following a 13-month investigation.
"We don’t want to give him any excuses in our minds, we don’t want to," Jones said. "But I’ve never seen anybody that’s had more [expletive] trying to do everything he’s trying to do. I thought it was just a dream that he could continue to just block out and just come out and be the competitor he is, both in practice and otherwise. But we’re seeing an impact of just the burden of what’s happening with him, but I mean, [expletive], I don’t know how you could be anybody breathing and not be impacted by what has happened to him.
"He’s had it every way from Sunday. You’d just almost have to be a superman about competing if you didn’t let that be a distraction to you. So we’ve just got to, I think, we’ve just got to step up and be more proactive here with him."
The documentary goes on to show the circus that became of the legal fight. Elliott and the NFL seemingly "won" every other day in the court room.
Eventually, Elliott served his suspension beginning in Week 10 and went to Mexico to train for it. The documentary shows a clip of Dak Prescott talking about it with a few of the coaches, and Prescott seemed to think it'd be a good place for Elliott to go.
Elliott eventually returns to the team for the Week 16 game vs. Seattle and meets with owner Jerry Jones. Jones had been outspoken in his belief that Elliott had been wronged by the NFL throughout the season, and reminds Elliott of that.
"You know I had your back," Jones said. "I hope you know that."
This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Legal battle made Ezekiel Elliott "stressed out," new Cowboys' documentary shows."