The NFL season may end, but the attention never ceases when you’re a Dallas Cowboys player – especially if you’re a star. Ezekiel Elliott and the media glare are never far apart, and now the running back finds himself the center of attention again.

Elliott is early in his sizeable new contract, but both he and the Cowboys might be reaching the point of wondering at what point the aggravation outweighs the adulation.

Ezekiel Elliott was already having a bad June

Bad has turned to worse this offseason for Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott.

Word leaked in mid-June that Elliott had tested positive for COVID-19, which has been the cause of death for more than 100,000 Americans this past spring. Elliott isn’t remotely close to the first athlete to come down with the virus, and several unidentified teammates have also reportedly tested positive. Naturally, the star running back was the one player whose name made it into the headlines.

While it’s hard to fault people for getting sick under most circumstances, Elliott became an easy target of critics because of his well-publicized house party in April with Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott that skirted quarantine rules. The party took place at Prescott’s home, and there were reportedly as many as 30 people present, triple the number allowed under state and CDC guidelines.

The likelihood that the party was the source of Elliott becoming sick is virtually nil, but that bit of misbehavior in the face of stay-at-home orders made him an easy target for haters.

A new problem is now dogging Ezekiel Elliott

According to documents obtained by TMZ, a woman who was cleaning Ezekiel Elliott’s pool at his Frisco, Texas, home in March has filed a lawsuit claiming the NFL star’s three dogs violently attacked her. The woman has alleged Elliott’s Rottweiler bit her arm and dragged her, after which his two bulldogs attacked her legs.

The court papers said she was treated at an emergency room for multiple bites and required surgery on her forearm two weeks later. The documents show she is seeking between $200,000 and $1 million as compensation for physical and mental pain from the attack.

Elliott is in the midst of a six-year, $90 million contract with $50 million guaranteed.

Elliott’s agent, Frank Salzano, told the website Elliott was in no way negligent. However, the woman who is suing claims she is not the first pool cleaner to be attacked by the Rottweiler, named Ace. She says the dog bit another service provider in December 2019.

The Dallas Cowboys star does seem to attract trouble

The lawsuit filed by the woman who was cleaning Ezekiel Elliott’s pool ranks somewhere between the suit filed against him in 2018 over an automobile accident and the domestic violence accusations that led to a suspension handed down by commissioner Roger Goodell in 2017.

The car incident was a January 2017 accident between Elliott’s vehicle and a car occupied by two other men. Elliott’s agent said at the time that the suit was a formality in order to bring the insurance company to the table.

The domestic abuse allegation was one of the major dramas of the 2017 NFL season. Goodell suspended Elliott for six games on Aug. 11 of that year under the league’s personal conduct policy following allegations by the player’s ex-girlfriend in Ohio of five instances of domestic violence.

Elliott was never criminally charged, but the suspension survived an appeal to the league-appointed arbitrator before a federal judge granted an injunction that allowed Elliott to start the season on time. After a protracted back-and-forth between the NFL and the players union in multiple courtrooms, Elliott gave up his appeal on Nov. 15 and began serving the suspension.

He returned for the final two games of the season, totaling 200 yards on the ground.