Yesterday arbitrator Harold Henderson upheld the six game suspension of Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. Now even though Elliott is suspended he’ll be allowed to play in the Cowboys Week 1 game against the New York Giants. NFL attorneys explained that due to the timing of Henderson’s decision Elliott will be allowed to play Week 1. I think this is the first time I’ve seen a player who is actually suspended being allowed to play.
Now Elliott’s situation is still up in the air as the NFLPA is trying to get a temporary restraining order that would allow Elliott to continue to play. If the temporary restraining order is not granted by the court and Elliott and his attorneys don’t take the case any farther he would be out until November 5th when the Cowboys face the Kansas City Chiefs.
Elliott’s attorneys have said that they intend to take the case to federal court if need. They said that “Mr. Elliott is looking forward to having his day in federal court where the playing field will be level and the NFL will have to answer for its unfair and unjust practices.”
Of course the NFL has filed a lawsuit. In New York federal court the NFL filed asking to have the league’s punishment be enforced.
Elliott took part in Tuesday’s meetings and walk-through at the Cowboys’ practice facility, The Star, in Frisco, Texas, before heading to Paul Brown District Court, roughly 50 minutes away, in time for the hearing. He is expected to be at the Cowboys’ full pads practice Wednesday.
Before Elliott was cleared to play in Week 1. The Cowboys were 3.5 point favorites over the Giants at the majority of Las Vegas sportsbooks. The line ticked up to Dallas being a 4 point favorite after the news was announced.
There’s already been a change to the Week 1 schedule. With it looking more and more that hurricane Irma will impact Florida this weekend the NFL has postpone the Miami Dolphins/Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. As it turned out both teams had their bye week scheduled for Week 11. Now Miami will host Tampa Bay on November 19th.
With the postponement the Dolphins and the Buccaneers will have to play straight weeks, which isn’t great for either team. The Miami players made it pretty clear that they wanted to play Week 1 and keep the bye week no matter what the circumstances where.
There where only really two choices for the NFL to make. Either find a neutral site and have the teams play or go with the postponement. I think that the NFL made the correct choices as now the players will have time to prepare for the hurricane.
It was confirmed yesterday by the MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred that the Boston Red Sox used what was described as electronic communication to steal signs and rely them to their players during the game.
It was the New York Yankees and their General Manager Brian Cashman who filed the complaint with MLB back on July 18th. The investigation was first reported by the New York Times.
Commissioner Manfred was at Fenway Park yesterday and said that he expects the investigation to be completed before the end of the regular season. Now Commissioner Manfred also mentioned that baseball doesn’t have a rule against stealing signs, per se. It’s the use of the electronic device by the Red Sox that violated the rule.
MLB’s investigation is being conducted by Bryan Seeley. He’s a former assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. attorneys office in Washington D.C. Seeley is now the head of MLB’s department of investigations.
What do you think the Red Sox punishment be?
Speaking of the Red Sox they defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 last night in a game that went 19 innings and lasted 6 hours and 19 minutes.
The Blue Jays scored a run in the 2nd inning and then a run in the 6th inning off of Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriquez and it looked like those two runs where going to hold up. Marco Estrada pitched 7 scoreless inning for Toronto giving up just 3 hits along the way. Dominic Leone worked a 1,2,3 8th inning before turning the ball over to closer Roberto Osuna.
Andrew Benintendi started the bottom of the 9th inning with a walk. Mookie Betts followed with a double putting the tying runs on base. Hanley Ramirez grounded out to 3rdfor the first out. Benintendi scored on the ground out and Betts moved up to 3rd base. Mitch Moreland was the next Red Sox hitter and he grounded out to 2nd as Betts scored the game tying run on the ground out. Xander Bogaerts got an infield single and stole 2nd base, but Rafael Devers stuck out to end the inning.
The Blue Jays managed to get a runner to 3rd base in the top of the 17th inning, but that was the only real scoring threat either team had until the bottom of the 19th inning.
Betts led off the bottom of the 19th with a double to leftfield. Ramirez followed with a single to centerfield scoring Betts and ending the game and giving Boston a 3-2 win.
There where 19 pitchers used in the game, 12 of them by the Red Sox. Those 12 Red Sox pitchers recorded 23 strikeouts in the game while the Blue Jays pitchers racked up just 12 strikeouts.
Ezequiel Carrera and Kevin Pillar had two hits each for the Blue Jays while Darwin Barney picked up three hits in the game. Mookie Betts had three hits for the Red Sox while Eduardo Nunez, Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez each had two hits for the Red Sox. Nunez and Ramirez here the only two players in the game with eight official at bats. Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mitch Moreland where the only two Red Sox starters without a hit as they both went 0 for 7 in the game. Steve Pearce and Josh Donaldson both went 0 for 6 for the Blue Jays. Toronto catcher Luke Maile was 0 for 4 in the game, but drew 4 walks.
These two teams meet again tonight and luckily there are expanded roster for September; so the fact that 19 pitchers where used shouldn’t affect either bullpen. Joe Biagini (3-9) makes the start for Toronto while Doug Fister (4-7) will start for Boston.
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