For most of the season, the Cowboys didn’t know from week to week whether Ezekiel Elliott would play. Now, they know. Elliott dropped his battle with the NFL this week, meaning he will miss five more games before returning for a Christmas Eve game against the Seahawks.
“I was really impressed with how Zeke went about it, that process,” tight end Jason Witten said, via Kate Hairopoulos of the Dallas Morning News. “I know that he and his team were trying to fight for what they felt was right, and I think he went about it the right way. I respect his decision and his team’s decision. I know that he’s going to do everything in his power to get back and when his number gets called here in a few weeks, be in the best shape and mindset he can be to help us down the stretch. And hopefully we can hold up our end and can be in the position to be in the hunt when he gets back.
“I know it wasn’t easy for him. He’s a young player, a young guy to be thrown in that, out in the public eye. I really do respect how he went about it the entire time as it went back and forth. These things happen, and he’ll be better because of it.”
Elliott was never arrested or charged after an ex-girlfriend accused him of domestic violence in July 2016. Witten, who grew up with an abusive father, started a foundation that advocates domestic violence prevention.
Witten was asked Thursday about the league’s ability to punish a player who isn’t arrested or charged.
“I don’t know enough about it to fully give my opinion,” Witten said. “I would just say, it’s hard to live in the gray in those situations. How do you get through that and go about that process? It seems like there’s a lot that I don’t know. . . . Just in all those cases with Tom [Brady] and Zeke, I don’t know that anytime it’s going back and forth like that, I don’t know if it’s good for our game.”