While reeling from the Ray Rice debacle and off-field incidents involving Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy, the NFL introduced a new Personal Conduct Policy that creates a baseline suspension of six games for an incident of domestic violence. That number can go up and, as we saw last year with the Josh Brown suspension, down.
With Elliott, some are suggesting that he’ll get six games.
There’s plenty of chatter in the media about a six-game suspension. Ross Tucker of SiriusXM NFL Radio tweeted this morning that, after saying on the air that he anticipates a one-to-four-game suspension, a “good source” (not to be confused with his bad sources) texted, “Don’t rule out six.”
Here’s a possibility: A six-game suspension that is later reduced on appeal to four games. Here’s another possibility: A six-game suspension that could be reduced to four with good behavior.
The latter approach is what the league used seven years ago when suspending Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who like Elliott had never been arrested or charged with any crime. Roethlisberger, unlike Elliott, had multiple incidents. But that changed with the Ray Rice case, which caused the NFL to shift the focus of the Personal Conduct Policy from recidivists to first-time offenders who engage in certain types of misconduct.
However it plays out, it could play out at any time.