The NFL took the next step in the ongoing Ezekiel Elliott legal battle Monday morning.
Online court documents show the league filed an appeal with the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging the preliminary injunction that put its disciplinary action against Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott on hold last week.
NFL appeals Ezekiel Elliott injunction pic.twitter.com/6Ki2j6iRuP
— Omnisport US News (@OmnisportUS) September 11, 2017
SIGN UP to watch every Cowboys game this season on DAZN
The league also filed for an emergency stay of the injunction in an effort to speed up a federal appeals process that typically takes months to reach a resolution.
Elliott will be eligible to play for the Cowboys in the meantime, but the NFL and the NFL Players' Association will continue fighting it out in the courts, as they did with Tom Brady last season, in the interest of establishing precedents for future disciplinary action.
U.S. District Court Judge Amos Mazzant III last week weighed in on Elliott's side, questioning the fairness of the NFL's disciplinary process.
"The NFL's actions demonstrate that from the very beginning of the decision-making process, a cloud of fundamental unfairness followed Elliott," Mazzant wrote in granting Elliott an injunction.
He did not — and the courts will not — consider the merits of the domestic violence accusations against Elliott that prompted the league to suspend him for six games. The legal battle is simply over the disciplinary process.
Elliott rushed 24 times for 104 yards and added 36 yards receiving in the Cowboys' season-opening win over the Giants on Sunday night.
