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The status of Ezekiel Elliott has dominated training camp so far for the Cowboys, considering his status has been a mystery.
The NFL’s reigning rushing champion (his second title in three seasons) was a no-show when the team arrived in Oxnard to prepare themselves for the 2019 season. Seeking a contract extension after cementing himself as the game’s best runner, apparently Elliott believes this holdout of sorts will help in that effort.
Jerry Jones, Stephen Jones, and Jason Garrett took to the podium on Friday and were peppered with all sorts of questions regarding their star running back. To their credit they stood firm in their stance and noted that this is the business side of the NFL, but nobody seemed to have any idea of the whereabouts of Zeke.
All Friday long a photo made its way across the book of faces (that’s Facebook, by the way). This was an alleged photo of Elliott at a restaurant in the DFW area, but you know how Facebook is, it’s Facebook for goodness sake.
NFL Network’s Jane Slater reported on Friday evening that this photo was in fact taken on Friday and is indeed of Ezekiel Elliott. It’s apparently at a restaurant in Plano called Benedict’s, a popular brunch venue, with his representation.
Just got off the phone with Dustin Nguyen who snapped this photo and posted to Facebook afterwards. Tells me Zeke came in at 12pm cst. Looked like he had just worked out. Was shocked to see him at Benedict’s brunch spot. Time stamp and location verified pic.twitter.com/hSKqVrc6bO
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) July 27, 2019
Per Slater’s reporting, the person who snapped the photo is also of the opinion that Elliott seemed to be coming in off of a workout. There are people who are undoubtedly frustrated with him for not being at training camp, but know that he’s hardly slouching around.
Slater also added that this could all be taken as valuable context regarding Elliott’s frame of mind at this point. While everybody who has a rooting interest in the Cowboys wants him there as soon as possible, the fact that he’s staying at the ready does seem to be a good sign.
Hopefully we’re not living in this limbo for too long as Zeke Watch already has people freaking out just a bit. All we can do now is wait for a resolution between him and the Cowboys, and in the meantime maybe we’ll hang out at Benedict’s in Plano.