There are le s than five days until the start of the 2017 NFL season, and le s than seven days until the play against the in Week 1. Despite the short time frame, the Cowboys have Buster Skrine Jersey no idea whether star running back will be eligible to play.No one does: not the NFL, not Elliott, not the Cowboys, not your law profe sor. No one. The only thing we can do is make some educated gue ses about what will happen in the future based on what we know from the past.Let's try and do that by answering some critical questions related to the Elliott case. If you have any extras .Why is Elliott suspended in the first place?Elliott was after a year-long investigation into , when his then-girlfriend accused him of a sault. Law enforcement officials in Ohio ; the NFL took substantially longer to proceed through the investigation proce s. We repeatedly heard , although as late as July of this offseason , despite Jerry Jones maintaining a belief and that .So why did Elliott get six games?In the wake of the NFL bungling its investigation into Ray Rice's domestic violence incident, it became abundantly clear the NFL was not adequately prepared to handle these cases and did not do enough from a discipline standpoint to try and curb the problem. So the league instituted a new domestic violence policy, which calls for a six-game suspension for first-time offenders.Like anyone else who has been previously punished, Elliott could face a permanent ban from the NFL if he were to get in trouble again on the domestic violence front. The league claims that Elliott's offseason behavior -- he was and was during a St. Patrick's Day parade -- did not factor into the decision to suspend him, but it seems likely that those two incidents and his general offseason behavior did not help his case.Did he appeal the suspension?He did! And the league, as is its right under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, appointed an arbitrator to hear his case. In this particular instance, the arbitrator was Harold Henderson, , who was also suspended for a domestic violence incident before being signed by the Cowboys.The hearing itself began last Tuesday and lasted for nearly three full busine s days, running right on through Thursday. A ruling is expected to either come down on Monday (Labor Day would be odd but we've seen news drop like that before) or Tuesday, when the league office re-opens.There is a chance that Elliott's suspension could be reduced to as little as two games -- Henderson reduced Hardy's suspension from 10 games to 4 games previously -- but anything is on the table at this point Mike Ditka Jersey in terms of a reduction, except for a complete elimination. The odds of that are almost nonexistent.Did anything notable happen during Elliott's appeal?Aside from the actual ruling, a lawsuit was born out of the appeal, with the NFLPA hiring famous union attorney Jeffrey Ke sler and in the Eastern District Court of Texas late on Thursday night/early on Friday morning. It was pretty surprising to see the union file the suit before the appeal verdict Mitchell Trubisky Jersey was handled down, but maybe it shouldn't have been. The NFL sprinted to court after the appeal ruling in case came down last year to try and secure a favorable jurisdiction. The NFLPA was doing the same thing here and also trying to push a narrative on the public that in the NFL offices. The gist of the conspiracy angle is that the chief investigator for the Elliott case, Kia Roberts, as a result of her year-long probe into the domestic violence allegations, but was not allowed to expre s that opinion in her report. Additionally, the union claims in its lawsuit that Roger Goodell was not made aware of Roberts' opinion. The NFL has vehemently denied that angle as well as the conspiracy.And the lawsuit also claimed that , Tiffany Thompson. There are also , Lisa Friel, and her past work.Because of this lawsuit, it also emerged that . (Note that this does not make him very different from a lot of 20-somethings, but it is also not a good look.) So what's the next step?There are actually TWO next steps to focus on at the beginning of the week.For starters, there is the arbitration award coming from Henderson. This is pretty straightforward: at some point he is going to i sue his ruling on Elliott's hearing. He will either vacate the suspension (highly unlikely Chase Daniel Jersey ), reduce the suspension (best bet) or leave the suspension at six games (wouldn't be shocking either). A reduced suspension is most likely because a) Henderson has a history of doing this, b) the NFL has a history of doing this, and c) it will make negotiating to keep Elliott out of court easier.Secondly, there is a hearing set on Tuesday afternoon to decide whether or not the Eastern District Court of Texas will grant Elliott and the NFLPA a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the NFL relating to whatever arbitration award Henderson i sues. This hearing is actually set for 6 p.m. ET so we should have an indication as to whether or not the court is inclined to help Elliott out here by Tuesday evening.This TRO serves as a bridge for Elliott to a potential injunction. As part of his lawsuit against the NFL, Elliott is asking for an injunction that will allow him to play Week 1, pending the court's decision on his lawsuit. Basically, the TRO would allow Elliott to practice with the Cowboys leading up to Week 1 while the court makes its decision on the injunction. The injunction is the same thing Tom Brady and the faced two years ago in the Deflategate lawsuit. NFL legal devotees will recall that before the 2015 season, Brady received an injunction from the court in order to play while the court made a decision on the Brady vs. NFL lawsuit.Ultimately Brady lost in court (he decided not to proceed to the Supreme Court), but the injunction allowed him to play during the 2015 season. He would eventually lose in court and serve his four-game suspension during the 2016 season.Elliott is likely hoping for something similar.So what is the court trying to decide here?The court basically has to decide whether it will a) shoot down Elliott's lawsuit or b) grant an injunction so Elliott can play while the court decides to hear the case. The only downside here for Elliott is, rather ironically, the Brady case. Because there is clear precedent for higher courts saying "tough luck, pal, the NFL can do what it wants because of the CBA the union agreed to." It is very much a po sibility that the courts will decide not to grant Elliott's injunction. Additionally, the legal system is heavily in favor of enforcing arbitration awards handed out as part of Collective Bargaining Agreements. This is not so much about "Roger Goodell having too much power" as it is about "two sides agreeing to resolve a dispute in a certain manner and sticking to it."Whether or not Goodell should be allowed to mete out whatever punishment he wants is irrelevant here; the NFL and NFLPA Leonard Floyd Jersey agreed to the rules when they signed t