NFL's Investigative Report Of Ezekiel Elliott Shows Inconsistencies On Both Sides

It doesn’t appear there’ll be any winners once the NFL makes its final decision on whether to uphold, reduce or vacate Ezekiel Elliott’s six-game suspension.

The NFL investigated the Dallas Cowboys running back for an entire year with regards to domestic violence allegations from ex-girlfriend Tiffany Thompson and found enough evidence to suspend him six games. Elliott has since appealed and filed a suit against the league with the NFL Players’ Association claiming its legal process was “fundamentally unfair.”

But the NFL released its investigative report Friday, and the evidence Deadspin shared shows a lack of credibility on both sides. And for brevity’s sake, we’ve summarized some of the key inconsistencies that make it tough to convict anyone in this whole saga.

The relationship
One of the biggest inconsistencies about the case actually is the nature of Thompson and Elliott’s relationship itself, and it’s important to note because it’s where a lot of the “he said, she said” comes from. Elliott claims Thompson never was his girlfriend and their relationship only was sexual, and that point fuels some of his responses to her accusations. For example, Thompson said the first instance of abuse happened after she questioned a Facetime call he received from a woman in Dallas while the two of them were lying in bed, but Elliott said the call didn’t bother Thompson, who knew he was sleeping with other women. Notably, Thompson had a key to Elliott’s apartment, which was revealed in the second alleged fight.

The abuse
What’s clear from the NFL’s report is that witnesses for both sides seem to remember different stories based on who they choose to believe. In all honesty, neither Elliott nor Thompson read as particularly credible. In the first and third instances of abuse Thompson alleges took place, there were no witnesses, and Elliott obviously refutes her story both times. There also were no witnesses for a few of the threats Elliott claims Thompson made, so, again, it’s his word against hers, and it’s basically impossible to know who’s telling the truth. There were witnesses to the fourth alleged incident, during which Elliott claims Thompson told him at his birthday party at a Columbus club that she would ruin his life, but none of them stated in an affidavit that Thompson made such a threat.

Thompson’s bruises
This is one of the biggest points of contention, as Thompson gave photos of bruises she claims were from Elliott as evidence, though examiners determined that many were a week or two old while others appeared consistent with recent abuse. Metadata from Thompson’s phone proved the photos she took were from the days she claimed abuse happened, and two doctors told the NFL they would have concluded Thompson was abused if she had come to their office. They believed she was telling the truth, but there wasn’t sufficient evidence to determine Elliott definitely was the abuser. Elliott claimed some of the bruising was from an altercation Thompson got into with another woman outside of the club, but a security guard and two off-duty police officers said they never saw either woman land a punch.

The most telling part of the report, however, came from Columbus prosecutor Robert Tobias, who originally declined to go forward with the case. One particular quote about the text Thompson sent to a friend telling her to lie to the police stands out.

“Once we saw the whole string, it later said Tiffany told her not to lie,” Tobias said, adding, “We felt like the witnesses really rallied around their respective sides.”

Tobias said Thompson didn’t seem “vindictive” and felt as though “something definitely happened here.” But Tobias ultimately couldn’t determine that Elliott did anything and he wasn’t confident in any of the witnesses.

There obviously is a lot in the report, and you can read much of it over at Deadspin. But what’s clear is that the NFL has a real mess on its hands, and it doesn’t appear anyone will come out looking very good in the end.