With the bevy of domestic violence cases that have plagued the NFL in recent years, it is a breath of fresh air to seeing a future NFL player take the issue as seriously as former Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott is.
A photo posted by Ezekiel Elliott (@ezekielelliott) on
Elliot will be wearing those colorful shoes during his combine workouts, and will then auction them off with all proceeds going to St. Louis and Columbus charities that help fight domestic violence.
In most recent mock drafts, Elliot has been projected as a lower first round pick, more often than not tabbed to the Houston Texans who do need a running back. This gesture is more than likely not going to push him much higher up draft boards, but none of those dreaded “character concerns” are going to come up in his combine interviews, one should guess.
While it certainly won’t completely change the NFL’s PR paradigm when it comes to domestic violence, especially with Johnny Manziel’s case referred to a Dallas area grand jury, Elliot’s gesture is a step that recent efforts to further educating the public about the crisis of domestic violence in this country have borne fruit. Hopefully, other drafts prospects will follow in Elliot’s lead.
Well done Zeke.