Ezekiel Elliott had an eventful departure day to Arizona. The star Ohio State running back was the at-fault driver in a car crash in Columbus, where he was cited for driving under suspension, driving without a license and failure to control after a crash around 1:30 in the afternoon on Sunday.
“He was the at-fault driver,” Columbus Police spokesman Denise Alex-Bouzounis told the Columbus Dispatch.
NBCSports.com’s Craig Calcaterra broke the news Monday morning, a tipster filling him in on the events that seemed to put the star running back’s final college game into jeopardy. But an Ohio State spokesman quickly ended that speculation, with the running back’s status for participation unchanged.
The Buckeyes are already without starting defensive tackle Adolphus Washington, who was suspended for the Fiesta Bowl after being arrested for soliciting an undercover police office posing as a prostitute. That charge is a first-degree misdemeanor, subject to similar penalties under Ohio law as Elliott’s violations, Calcaterra points out.
Eleven Warriors has done the digging into what likely got Elliott’s license suspended in the first place—an unpaid speeding ticket and a failure to show up at court. Those fairly innocent mistakes have snowballed into another somewhat embarrassing situation for Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, especially considering his more than dubious history of handing out punishments to his star players. Meyer has yet to discuss the incident.