Judge denies Ezekiel Elliott an emergency stay, notice of appeal filed

Dallas Cowboys running Ezekiel Elliott was dealt another, albeit expected, setback in court on Tuesday before the legal row shifted to a federal appeals court.

Judge Katherine Polk Failla, whose decision Monday cleared way for the NFL to suspend Elliott, needed only about an hour to deny a request for an emergency stay filed by lawyers for the NFL Players Association.

Minus intervention by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, Elliott will miss the first game of his six-game suspension — levied over allegations of domestic abuse — against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. 

Lawyers for the NFL Players Association, who represent Elliott, filed a notice of appeal Tuesday night.

"For the Court to grant the NFLPA’s motion for a stay at this stage would, in effect, be to reverse its decision of last evening denying the NFLPA’s motion for injunctive relief," Failla wrote in her decision on Tuesday.

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Andrew S. Tulumello, an attorney representing Elliott and the NFLPA,  requested Failla render a decision by 7 p.m. ET Wednesday and, minus one, Elliott "will have no choice but to seek relief from the Second Circuit."

As it turns out, she didn't need hardly that long before she denied the stay that would have kept Elliott's suspension on hold. 

The case is now in the hands of the 2nd Circuit, the same legal body that sided with the NFL in New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's Deflategate case last year. The 2nd Circuit ruled, in Brady's case, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had broad authority to discipline players under the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA.

The NFLPA is expected to seek a stay of Failla's ruling with the 2nd Circuit. 

"If there is a stay it'll be out of the court of appeals and it's unlikely they're going to issue a stay," former assistant U.S. Attorney David S. Weinstein, a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, told USA TODAY Sports. 

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It was very unlikely that Failla would grant an injunction and one need only to go back to last month in another federal court in this case to see how this motion would likely play out. 

Judge Amos L. Mazzant, who approved the first injunction in the case that has allowed Elliott to play in each of the Cowboys' first seven games, declined the NFL's request to stay his ruling. The injunction was eventually vacated by an appeals court, which caused the case to shift to New York. 

Failla struck down several of the NFLPA’s arguments in her 24-page ruling.

“While reasonable minds could differ on the evidentiary decisions made by the arbitrator, the proceedings in their totality accorded with the (collective bargaining agreement) and the (personal conduct policy) — and, to the extent such an inquiry applies, with precepts of fundamental fairness,” Failla wrote in her decision.