NFL asks appeals court for stay that would allow immediate suspension of Ezekiel Elliott
Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott's pending federal court case could very well take several more months until it’s resolved.
The NFL, however, showed Friday that it would rather this move swiftly, as lawyers for the league petitioned the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency stay that -- if approved -- would allow for the immediate suspension of Elliott.
"Elliott’s fame and notoriety provide no license to ignore the longstanding federal labor policy preference to avoid judicial interference with the private dispute resolution process for which the parties here bargained," Eric Gambrell, one of the NFL's lawyers, wrote in the stay filing.
NFL spokesperson Joe Lockhart told reporters that the league hopes a ruling on the stay by the 5th Circuit would take place by Tuesday, although Lockhart added that it could take up to two weeks.
“We believe the lower court ruling was deeply flawed, based on the merits,” Lockhart said.
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More: NFLPA argues against NFL's stay request in Ezekiel Elliott case
U.S. District Court Judge Amos Mazzant, the same judge who granted a temporary injunction last week, had a similar stay request in front of him already. Elliott was suspended for six games last month after a year-long investigation over domestic violence allegations, a decision Mazzant ruled was "fundamentally unfair.”
In a filing on Wednesday, the NFL asked Mazzant for an expiated ruling on its stay request, but Mazzant hadn’t ruled as of Friday morning. Typically, litigants wait for a district court ruling before filing with an appeals court.
Sports law attorney Daniel Wallach said like the NFL's stay request with Mazzant, the league's prospects of getting a stay with the 5th Circuit aren't great.
"The motion will likely be denied due to the absence of any 'irreparable harm' to the league, as compared to plenty for Elliott," said Wallach, a partner at Becker & Poliakoff based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.. "If forced to serve his suspension now due to a stay of the injunction, he will be irreparably harmed by virtue of sitting out games that he will never recapture should he later prevail on appeal. There is no time machine that would enable him to go back in time and play those games."
The NFL has previously appealed Mazzant's issuance of a temporary injunction to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lockhart used Friday's conference call as an opportunity to highlight the NFL's view on domestic violence cases like Elliott's.
“A lot of the coverage has veered toward the relationship between the league office and the union, and the process by which discipline is administered under the CBA,” Lockhart said. “What’s lost here in this case is the issue of domestic violence. We have been very clear that this is an important issue. We hold our players to a high standard, and to us it does not rest on what any law enforcement or judicial institution makes a decision on.
“We believe when we have evidence and have come to a conclusion that a player has violated the personal conduct policy, there are consequences there. And that is the case here."
NFLPA spokesperson George Atallah responded to Lockhart's comments on Twitter.
PHOTOS: Ezekiel Elliott through the years