In a strange incident on Sunday, Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott briefly appeared to injure his back when he landed awkwardly on a pylon on the sideline that had a camera in it for use on the FOX broadcast. Elliott stayed in the game and looked fine, but the Cowboys are not happy about it.
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said today that Elliott’s back is still sore from where he landed on the pylon, and that the team will contact the league about the player safety concerns that arise with an object so close to the field of play.
For his part, Elliott said after the game that the pylon is a lot harder than it looks.
“Yeah, I fell on the pylon. That thing is kind of hard. Maybe they should find a new spot for it,” he said, via USA Today. “It’s hard. The bottom - the base of it - is hard, too. No, it’s definitely not soft. . . . Yeah, it definitely hurt. Normally, I get up and at least get off the field. But right there, I had to chill out a little bit. It kind of just stabbed me. Lost my wind.”
Objects on the sideline can be dangerous to players. Among several injuries caused by objects on the sideline, Chiefs All-Pro running back Jamaal Charles suffered a torn ACL when stepping on a down marker in 2011. The Cowboys are right to be unhappy.