The Facts: The lawsuit has been filed, and a date and time have been selected for the first hearing in the case. The date and time selected may already guarantee that Elliott will play against the Giants in Week 1. Via Daniel Wallach, the motion for a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction blocking Elliott's suspension will be presented to Judge Amos L. Mazzant on Tuesday, September 5, at 5:00 p.m. CT.

Diehards Line: If the NFL delays action on the Elliott suspension until the hearing, it necessarily will be too late to suspend him for Week 1. As Profootballtalk.com notes, traditionally, player suspensions not finalized by 4:00 p.m. ET on the Tuesday preceding a given Sunday do not become effective that week. As PFT's Mike Florio notes, however it all plays out, the league has yet another complication to contend with as it tries to determine a strategy for proceeding in federal court and, ultimately, securing a ruling upholding whatever suspension arbitrator Harold Henderson eventually imposes. If he even imposes one. Lost in the legal wrangling is the possibility that the pre-emptive attack on Henderson’s ruling could prompt him to agree with NFL Director of Investigations Kia Roberts, who reportedly testified that she believed a suspension should not have been imposed.