How Much Did NFL Fine Ezekiel Elliott & La'el Collins For Cowboys Fight? (P.S.: Pay Up, Dak Prescott!)
FRISCO - "L.C. did exactly what you're supposed to do there,'' said Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy.
And now the Cowboys find the NFL agrees…. But with a fine for both Collins and Ezekiel Elliott.
The NFL fined Elliott and Collins $10,300 each for unnecessary roughness in the fight against Washington.
"I obviously respect and love the fact that my teammates are standing up for me,” Dak Prescott said after Sunday's 27-20 win that featured a borderline cheap shot, this administered on Prescott, with La’el Collins and Ezekiel Elliott leading Dallas’ retaliatory charge. “It’s how all of us feel about one another.”
Dak has said he would pick up the tab on a Collins fine. (Zeke will surely ask for the same generosity from his pal.)
Collins was at the fore of the fray, the offensive tackle who owner Jerry Jones admiringly says has "a dark side.'' And now La'el - who has experienced an eventful season with an early-season suspension of five games for misbehavior and with this week's perfectly-timed Christmas charity effort - joins the Cowboys in working on the assumption that his punch (well, swing) will earn him no suspension and only a fine.
"You don’t take cheap shots on guys,'' Collins said Sunday at FedEx Field. "We don’t play that type of game. We just line it up and go out there and play ball. We don’t play dirty, we don’t do none of that.
"At the end of the day, we’re not going to take no bullshit.''
There is no denying the forcefulness Dak’s mates offered - and it so happens that Collins and Zeke are two of the QB’s closest pals.
Collins was ejected in the fourth quarter for throwing a punch at Washington defender James Smith-Williams, who was guilty of the illicit hit.
Said Collins, who Dak has labeled “the enforcer” along the O-line: "It wasn’t really the late hit for me. I felt it was more so, I felt like he was rolling towards Dak’s leg. It was uncalled for. I’m just here to protect my quarterback at all costs, and that’s the bottom line.''
Added Elliott: “We fight for ours.”
The fight will continue this week, Dallas moving to 9-4 and moving to New York on Sunday to play the Giants. It is the Cowboys' plan for Terence Steele to start at left tackle (as Tyron Smith has already been ruled out with an ankle injury) and for Collins to continue his long-standing role as the right tackle. … with Ty Nsekhe in the left-side mix.
The Cowboys were rooting for nothing more than a fine. And they are rooting for La'el Collins.
“Told him right there at the moment as they were taking him out of the game,” Dak said after the sideline brawl. “Told him how I felt about him as a brother and as a teammate and just reiterated that in the locker room.”
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