Ezekiel Elliott granted temporary restraining order, suspension blocked again

A federal judge has granted Dallas Cowboys running back another temporary restraining order, making him eligible to play until a further ruling can be issued on his pending NFL suspension. You can find the full order from the court right here, via Josina Anderson of ESPN.

The order is good for 14 days or until the judge issues a ruling on whether or not to grant an injunction to keep Elliott eligible. So in other words, this is itself a temporary injunction to determine whether or not a preliminary injunction will be issued.

This comes just hours after a three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit vacated the initial injunction blocking the suspension, which stemmed from a federal lawsuit the NFL filed after Elliott’s initial lawsuit in Texas. So it was briefly reported that Elliott would be ineligible to play against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 7, and now he definitely will play in that game.

It’s likely he’ll play in the team’s next game in Week 8 as well. The Cowboys had a bye in Week 6. This, of course, is pertinent to us here because Elliott is an excellent player and we haven’t known for sure whether or not he would play against the 49ers. His original six-game suspension covered the 49ers game, but these delays have done enough to allow him to play all of the original teams he was originally set to miss.

Elliott’s suspension is due to what the NFL believes was a violation of its rules regarding domestic violence and player conduct. Elliott was not charged in the incident, but the NFL ruled that enough evidence had been gathered to prove that Elliott took part in some wrongdoing. The NFL maintains it does not need legal punishment to institute their own.