Cowboys' concern grows as Ezekiel Elliott keeps doing dumb things

When the Dallas Cowboys broke their full squad minicamp a month ago, several coaches had an overriding message in their parting words for players: Enjoy your time off. Be smart. Training camp is only a few weeks away.

More than anyone else on the roster, you can bet those words were meant for the ears of running back Ezekiel Elliott. The team centerpiece is now alleged to have broken the nose of an acquaintance six days before he was scheduled to report to training camp – a camp that was already slated to begin beneath the smoke of the NFL’s ongoing domestic violence investigation into Elliott. Now, this kindling gets added.

Be smart.

At this point, the Dallas Cowboys can call Elliott a lot of things. A great football player. A charismatic personality. A “fun-loving,” passionate guy on the practice field (as head coach Jason Garrett has previously framed him). Even a good teammate. But smart? Or self-aware? Right now, calling Elliott either would be a stretch.

The Cowboys know this, too. Some individuals inside the franchise are irritated. Whether the power brokers admit it publicly or not (and Garrett hasn’t and probably won’t), the amount of off-field energy expended on Elliott is becoming frustrating, largely from one big thing – the domestic violence investigation that owner Jerry Jones wants to go away once and for all. But now, also from two (arguably) smaller, stupid things: Elliott pulling a woman’s shirt down and exposing her breast at a St. Patrick’s Day party in March, and now allegedly breaking a man’s nose.

When Elliott pulled the shirt stunt in March, it was passed off inside the Cowboys as a dumb, immature act of a 21-year old kid. It was eyerolled and forgotten as a “be smarter than that” moment. And now this? Sunday night’s alleged incident at Clutch Bar in Dallas? It’s being framed as Zeke being stupid again … inserting himself into a female friend’s argument and then escalating into him punching a guy he knew in the face.

To be fair, friends and acquaintances do get into physical altercations. It happens. Maybe not to the point of someone being taken away in an ambulance, but surely this moment isn’t breaking new ground in the history of bars or alcohol or arguments.

All of that said, the problem with Elliott is becoming a cumulative one. From an optics standpoint, he’s an amazing football player who is, at best, looking like a young, immature pain in the rear. At worst? He’s an amazing football player with character problems who plays into a Cowboys “anything goes” stereotype that has lingered since the 1990s.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has publicly stated some of Ezekiel Elliott are “just not good.” (Getty)

In reality, Elliott could very well be all of those things – a young, fun-loving, immature-but-great football player who has shown some character concerns. More often than not, athletes are mixed bags and people tend to love or hate them based on what they choose to recognize inside that bag.

Elliott is no different. And he has given his supporters and critics no shortage of headlines for celebration or criticism. Just take a little walk down memory lane …

• May 2016: Elliott gets drafted, then promptly gets splashed across social media via a woman’s snapchat photo from bed. Certainly other guys have been there (see: Julian Edelman). Not exactly earth-shattering, but definitely gossipy material.

• July 2016: Elliott gets accused of domestic violence by an alleged former girlfriend. Information has remained both limited and ambiguous – and also included an account in which Elliott’s accuser allegedly asked another witness to lie. A text exchange revealed in the investigation also featured Elliott responding to a drug test question from the woman by texting back: “I’m gonna pass. About to live in this sauna the next 24 hours.” No charges were brought against Elliott in the domestic violence probe, but it sparked an NFL investigation that has lingered for more than a year. The depth of the league investigation has been far more than cursory, with the NFL requesting (and receiving) phone records and other documents from Elliott.