Dalvin Cook in Trouble? Cowboys Signing Lesson from Ezekiel Elliott

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys were never involved in the bidding for the services of Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook, who remains a free agent as NFL teams begin training camp. The reasoning was obvious: Dallas already employs a $10 million APY back in Tony Pollard.

But there is something else in play here, amid reports that Cook has narrowed his choices to a trio of AFC East teams ... and it's a reminder from Ezekiel Elliott's early days with the Cowboys.

Elliott was suspended by the NFL for six games in his second pro season of 2017 amid a domestic violence accusation. There was never law-enforcement-level proof of the then-second-year running back's guilt. But the NFL has the power, thanks to a ridiculous clause in the CBA agreed to by the players' union called "Article 46,'' to rule as it wishes.

So Elliott didn't get justice. He got railroaded ... and he got suspended.

It was just before this time, while Elliott was being investigated by the league for the alleged incident from July 2016, that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones suggested his star player would be cleared by the NFL. And Jones suggested that because, we gathered, somebody in commissioner Roger Goodell had informed the owner of that.

Later, when Jones spent time brewing up a plan to oust the commissioner? The Elliott ruling - a change in the planned ruling, Jones surely believed - was the central reason why.

Cook has also been accused of violence against a girlfriend, a nasty situation that includes accusations of physical abuse that caused a concussion, and him holding her hostage, and him offering her $1 million in "hush money.'' Cook then filed a countersuit claiming defamation and fraud.

The league has been sitting on this for two years without having taken action. Why? Because thanks to "Article 46,'' it can. Goodell can literally not punish Cook at all ... or he could literally issue him a lifetime ban.

So as the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets are apparently finalists to sign the former Minnesota Vikings standout, they all have two major considerations ... the same two that Jones and the Cowboys once faced.

The easy one? How much is a running back worth? After the suspension ended, Dallas eventually made Elliott the highest-paid running back in the history of football at about $15 million a year. But now? This era of "the devaluation of the running back'' is a factor. The Giants' Saquon Barkley and the Raiders' Josh Jacobs still haven't signed their $10 million tags in protest of that movement. Will Cook's bidders get their $10 million worth?

And the hard one: Cook's suitors must weigh the possibility of the NFL eventually opting to punish Cook with a suspension. And as it regards a commissioner's ruling, all they can do - as Jerry Jones and Ezekiel Elliott once learned - is guess.

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