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So let me start off by saying that I am not condoning any sort of physical or mental abuse of anyone, of either sex, at any time, for any reason. It is never OK to do the things that Ezekiel Elliott is being accused of.
The Dallas Cowboys running back was accused of domestic violence against his former girlfriend in July of 2016. These allegations led to a year-long investigation by the NFL and the Florida police department, which then led to a 6 game suspension for breaking the NFL's personal conduct policy. Elliott has yet to be arrested or charged with a crime and continues to claim he is innocent. Though as everyone knows, the NFL suspending you for domestic abuse is quite a sting to both your life and career, the latter being a bit hit or miss in this industry.
Elliott is now appealing the case. But honestly.... Why bother? The damage is now done.
And that is my issue with this whole case. The ex-girlfriend specifically said she was going to, "ruin his career". Though I don't think she will succeed in actually ruining his career, I do think what is happening now is exactly what she meant. Here are some of the glaring issues with the case:
- No concrete evidence in this case at all.
- She posted the 'evidence' pictures on her Instagram account....This seems too juvenile for me personally to take serious. Seems (to me) like she just wanted everyone to see and judge.
- The Columbus City Attorney's office declined charges, stating there was "conflicting and inconsistent information across all incidents".
- Elliot told the police that she is doing this in spite of her anger for a 'social media incident' and being asked to leave Elliott's apartment.
- She claimed previous counts of domestic violence, but didn't report them.
- There is text message proof of Thompson encouraging her friend to lie to police about an alleged domestic abuse case in July. This one is unquestionable. It also tells me all that I need to know about this particular case.
It's incredibly hard for me to believe someone claiming domestic abuse, when there is evidence that they encouraged someone to lie about a domestic abuse case. And again, this is not me claiming that I know for sure. This is not me saying Elliot should just be let off. This is me saying that it is way, way too easy to hurt someone's career and life with these types of charges. I can't think of a way to fix this issue, but I don't think swapping domestic abuse for this type of abuse is fair.