Eagles fans would love to see Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott serve his six-game suspension, but Philadelphia safety Malcolm Jenkins feels otherwise.
Jenkins, who, like Elliott, attended Ohio State, serves as the players’ union representative for the Eagles.
“I never want to see anybody going through what Zeke is going through, especially when there are no charges against him,” Jenkins said, via
Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Daily News. “I don’t understand that.”
The Cowboys, who trail the Eagles by 2 1/2 games, play Philadelphia twice the final seven weeks, so Elliott will miss only one of the two games against the Eagles if he has to serve a suspension this season.
Elliott, so far, has avoided league punishment with legal rulings in his favor. He is expected to return to court again next week after getting an administrative stay Friday, allowing him to play against the Chiefs on Sunday. The Cowboys and Eagles play for the first time this season on Nov. 19.
“Being in his division, you’re like, ‘Hey, it obviously helps us,’ but I want to go against their best players,” Jenkins said. “There’s no doubt he’s a huge piece of what they do offensively and why that team has had success. That’s not to say they can’t have success without him, but he’s a huge chunk.
“We don’t really have a player on our offense that we can compare to him besides Carson Wentz. Backs like Zeke, there are not many like that in the league. He is special, so to lose that would be detrimental to any team.”
Jenkins agrees with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ assessment that Elliott is paying for the NFL’s mishandling of the Ray Rice case.
“I think it’s because [the NFL] has now made a blanket statement when it comes to domestic violence and sexual assault,” Jenkins said. “Most of that is reactionary to the Ray Rice situation because that started with two games and then there was a huge uproar once the video came out and we have to be stronger. In doing that, there is collateral damage, and that damage is when you have guys that are in this gray area, and they get put into the blanket statement when they probably don’t need to be.”