- Zeke, are you ready for the question and answer session?
- I'm ready.
- Question number one:
Ezekiel Elliott.
Do you think
that you can bench press Tim The Tatman?
- I think I can. I think I can.
I think on stream the other day
Tim said he's about 250, I think.
I think I can handle that. (laughs)
- [Scooter] So we're putting Tim at 250.
- [Zeke] Yeah.
- And you're repping that. Like, with ease.
- Um, I don't know about that.
I broke my wrist in college.
The bone I broke is the scaphoid,
and honestly, it never healed.
If you X-rayed my wrist right now,
there's a screw in my scaphoid
and the fracture is very much still there.
So, I mean, benching is a little tough for me. (laughs)
- This is gonna be the only question on this issue,
so no one in the chat can keep asking.
How are feeling right now, after contracting the 'rona?
- I'm feeling good.
I would say I had maybe one or two days
where I felt symptoms, and even then, it wasn't too bad.
I had a cough and a little bit of shortness of breath,
but now I would say I feel good.
I feel normal. Still can't work out.
I coulda went and got retested this week.
I just decided, I mean,
it won't hurt just to wait another week
and just give myself more time to rest up.
But I feel good.
- There we have it, ladies and gentlemen.
Zeke is feeling good after contracting 'rona.
We're gonna keep this moving along.
This question comes from Reddit. Shout out /r/cowboys.
They are asking: Who is the funniest player on the Cowboys?
- I would say D-Law. Easy.
Easily D-Law. - What makes him so funny?
- It's effortless.
It's just his personality. It's effortless.
- Give us an example.
- I think he gives you guys examples
every time he does an interview.
(Scooter laughs) He's very blunt.
He really doesn't care what anyone else thinks.
- You love to see it.
Those are, honestly, the best type of funny.
- Exactly. - When it just rolls off.
Madden rating: What do you think yours should be, and why?
Are we an all 99, Ezekiel?
- No, not an all 99.
Not yet. What was my Madden rating last year?
Any of you guys know?
Yeah, I don't know. I think I was maybe 91 last year.
I think I'll probably be around the same thing.
- Leave a comment.
What do you think Ezekiel's rating should be?
I'm going with 99, but that's just me,
and I'm trying to win with the Cowboys, so you know.
- I appreciate that.
I'll say it's anywhere from between 90 and 95.
Anything below 90, then they're disrespecting me.
- Did you see that clip of HaHa?
- Yeah, I saw that.
- 'Cause his awareness needs to be at 99.
- Oh, it needs to be.
And if you know football and you've played football before,
and you seen the way he flipped his hips
and ran away so fast, that's a pro DB.
- HaHa actually went to my high school.
- Really?
- He went to Dr. Phillips High School.
Never Less than the Best!
I wasn't there when he was there.
He was who everyone was talking about back in the day.
Speaking of high school and high school football,
you grew up in St. Louis, right?
- St. Louis! Yeah.
- Growing up, who were the players from your area?
Like the people known for football or for basketball.
Who were those athletes?
- David Lee, Brad Beal, Jayson Tatum.
All went to the same high school.
They went to Chaminade College Prep.
Right down the street from where I went to school, actually.
- Where they your rivals, Chaminade, your rivals?
- No, no, no, no. They were a way bigger school.
So I went to like a little private school.
I graduated with 90 kids.
And they were a bigger all-boys school.
- So we got two sort of NFL-related questions.
Your favorite run as a Dallas Cowboy?
- Does it have to be a run?
- Or a favorite play. Let's go favorite play.
- Favorite play, I will say...
I think it was Sunday Night Football in Pittsburgh,
when we had that shootout, very high-scoring game.
It was a 85-yard screen.
- What was going through your mind?
Did you think you were gonna score?
'Cause like in basketball,
you know if it's going in or not, you have that feeling.
Is there a similar feeling in football?
- Well, we call it the Linehan Screen.
It was a play that Coach Linehan loved.
We had a lotta success on it.
We'd fake like a Jet Sweep, run a screen the other way.
I got three really long touchdowns on that play.
So I think I scored earlier that year,
I think maybe like a 75-yard touchdown on the same play.
Even to this day now, I'm just like, okay,
when that play's called, I know I can crib it.
I think I might have four touchdowns on that play.
- They need to put this play in Madden.
Call it the Linehan Screen. Playbook update.
After we win seven Super Bowls in a row, what's the plan?
We're gonna retire? And then we're gonna do what?
- I'm not sure yet.
I love football, so I could see myself coaching.
Maybe high school.
High school football's big in Texas,
so I think that'd be pretty neat.
- Chat, would you want Ezekiel Elliott
as your high school coach?
What offense would you run?
- Mix between spread with a little bit of pro feel.
You need that downhill running game.
- You won't hit 'em with the pistol.
- Pistol'll be in there.
- You won't hit 'em with the triple-option. The wishbone.
- Nah, not the triple-option wishbone.
(both laugh)
I think that's a thing of the past.
So we went to state three times.
Lost three times. - Dang.
- My last two years- - You wanna talk about it?
- Nah, I don't wanna talk about it.
The last two years, we played two schools...
I think they ran like wishbone triple-option,
and they just had huge lines and just mauled us.
I broke the record for most all-purpose yards.
I had like 450 all-purpose yards.
But the other team, I think it was Maryville,
they had like 500 rushing yards.
- Dang! Y'all couldn't tackle them at all.
- No, no. They had like...
So I went to a small school.
Our linebackers were like 150, 160.
I was bigger than our offensive line,
and their O-line was like 300 across the board.
- I was the best receiver at my high school, Zeke,
who couldn't catch.
(Zeke laughs) Like...
Elite level of separation.
Speed burst. Agility.
But as soon as the ball's in the air,
I just, for whatever reason, I could not track it.
- You know what we call that?
- What? - We call that the butters.
- I definitely had a lot of butters.
- You had the butters. - A lot of butters.
Now, flag football, you don't wanna see me.
There was one time in football, I was playing...
Okay, one time, I'm on the practice team,
'cause I have elite speed, but I can't do anything else.
Ball's already in the air, other side of the field.
Intercepted. I'm running back, trying to get the tackle.
Next thing I know, my body, horizontal, in the air.
Hit stick action.
- Your feet were above your head?
- Yes, it was like, it was that.
The worst hit stick of my life.
I need to know your worst hit that you have taken,
and the worst hit that you have given.
- First pad at football practice.
I was seven years old. Seven-year-old Zeke.
Imagine seven-year-old Zeke running around
with two big shoulder pads and a big ol' helmet.
First of all, my head is so big and was so big,
when I first started playing football
my coach had to go to the 13-year-old team
and get me a helmet.
- And how old were you?
- Seven. (laughs)
So I think I was like seven years old,
with the same size head as I have now.
- (laughs) Okay.
- You know how they do the Oklahoma drill.
There's always one kid who is wrecking the other kid,
and there's the one kid who's getting wrecked
and he's the one crying.
I was the one who got wrecked and was crying.
I thought I was gonna run my tail in there all high,
so I run in there standing straight up.
You guys see how I run now. Pad level low.
Not trying to give 'em any surface area to hit.
I run in there straight up, get speared in the stomach.
Knocked the breath outta me.
You guys know when you're a little kid,
and you start crying but nothing comes out.
(laughs) That was me.
- Can we get some F's in the chat? F's in the chat, please.
- I think that's why I run with such low pad level now.
We've came a long way. - We definitely have.
What about the worst hit you've ever delivered?
Did you ever make someone cry?
- Probably a bunch of times.
My biggest hit stick would be
my freshman year at Ohio State.
So I was a freshman. I wasn't the starter.
For me to play, I had to play special teams.
Kickoff verse Perdue.
They ran like a reverse scheme on their kickoff return.
And we prepared for it all week.
And I was the guy that had the whole contain
on the backside of the reverse.
I had to keep everything inside of me. They run the reverse.
I get like, it's probably like a 40-yard,
just full head of steam.
And this dude had nowhere to go.
He think he was trying to get outta bounds,
but he ain't get there fast enough.
And I think I knocked him past the cheerleaders.
It was on C'mon Man!
One of the cheerleaders was laughing.
I think she got in trouble for it.
- (laughs) So your biggest hit was when
you were on special teams?
To all the running backs out there:
If Zeke started on special teams,
you can start on special teams.
We all start somewhere.
- That was one of Coach Meyer's things.
If you were a skill player,
you had to start on special teams
before you could start on offense.
- Speaking of Coach Urban Meyer...
Now, we are actually linked through Urban Meyer,
the coach at Florida, then went on
to coach Zeke at Ohio State.
So my question: Do you think
your Ohio State championship team could have beaten
the Timothy Tebow/Percy Harvin Florida?
- I think so.
- Okay, first off, you answered that way too quick.
- I think so.
- Like you didn't even think about it.
Have you seen Percy Harvin's arm?
His arms look like my leg.
I played against Percy and Devin Hester at L.A. Fitness.
Tell me why they were still faster than me,
in retirement. - Makes sense.
- [Scooter] Who's guarding Percy?
- It depends. Who do you want to guard him?
Marshon Lattimore, Denzel Ward-
- Who's tackling Tim?
- Maybe Joey Bosa. Maybe Vonn Bell.
Maybe Raekwon McMillan.
I mean, we got a buncha dogs too, now.
Who's guarding Mike Thomas?
- Who? - Who's guarding Mike Thomas?
Who is guarding Mike Thomas?
Can't guard Mike. Who's guarding Mike Thomas?
'Cause there's no one that can guard him right now.
Who's guarding him? Who's guarding him? Who? Who?
- I gotta go look at the squadron list,
but I'm pretty sure that's when we had Matt Elam
destroying people's will.
I think that's also when we had Major Wright.
You don't want...
Major Wright hitting you!
This brings us to my next question.
Which defender, not that you're afraid of,
but which defender in the NFL,
you know every time you play this person,
it's gonna be a hard hit? - Demario Davis.
- [Scooter] So every time you're going against Demario Davis
you know you gotta lay the wood?
You lay the wood or you get laid.
- I'ma have to bring my hard hat.
He's a guy I know I gotta bring my hard hat.
He plays like me. He's gonna put his nose in there.
He's gonna hit you every play. He's a dog.
- We're gonna change it up a little bit.
We were talking about this yesterday.
Tell me a little bit about your dogs. You have three dogs.
So let's humanize Ezekiel Elliott a little bit.
Tell us about your dogs.
- I got OG Ace. I got Ace after a national championship.
He is the OG. - Are the dogs there now?
- They're not with me right now,
but they do have a Instagram. - What is the Instagram?
Let me pull this up so some people can see.
- Ace, Deuce and Jack Elliott.
- That is the longest Instagram-
- I think we got some visitors. Ace, come here!
So this is Ace. Ace is like that. Come on, bro.
Mmm!
This is OG Ace.
OG Ace. He's like, "Put be down, bro.
"Put me down, bro." He's like, "All right, all right."
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, boss.
I'm not gonna try to pick up Deuce,
because I tried to pick him up yesterday,
he scratched the heck outta me.
And this is Jack Jack. He's the baby.
This is Jack Jack. - Aww!
- Jack Jack, say hi. Hi!
- [Scooter] Can we get some some awws in chat?
A-W-Ws in chat, please?
- Jack Jack's a baby.
- How old is Jack Jack? - Jack Jack is three.
Almost three. He turns three in September.
Ah! Ah! Ah! Deuce, Deuce, Deuce, Deuce, Deuce!
Deuce! Look!
Look!
Oh! Oh!
Deuce, look!
All right. - Man, someone screencap this.
Take a picture. (Zeke chuckles)
All right, we're coming towards the conclusion
of our question and answer session.
Back to football.
I know you were saying you don't even think
there's gonna be a season this year.
- Yeah, I don't know.
I just feel like there's a lotta moving parts
that has to be figured out.
I just don't know how they can keep the players healthy.
You gotta put the health of the players first.
And it's not even so much, I would say,
the players' health, because I mean,
I got corona and it didn't really affect me much.
But a lotta people have kids,
they may have kids with asthma,
they may have newborn babies.
Their parents or grandparents may live with them.
We have to find the ways to make sure
that the players and their families,
and the coaches also, and their families,
aren't put at risk.
- Absolutely. At this point I don't even know.
Chat, what do you guys think?
Do you think there will or will not be
an NFL season this year?
I need a yes or no in the chat.
Now, if the season were to continue as planned,
what would it be like for you playing in a game,
no fans at all?
Like, you score a touchdown, no one's cheering.
- It'd a little weird, for sure.
It'd be weird to be in AT&T Stadium with no fans.
But I wanna play football. I miss football.
It's been tough, you know, not having the OTAs,
not really being able to be around the guys
and just that camaraderie, I miss the camaraderie.
- I can feel that.
I loved playing football, and I sucked.
The amount of foolishness that we did
in the senior locker room at Dr. Phillips High School.
I'm glad Snapchat wasn't around back then.
Because, uh... (Zeke chuckles)
I don't know what we were doing.
- They're like my family away from my family.
We spend so much time together during the season.
I think we do have a really close team.
- Maybe some people are watching this
and they're running backs themselves,
and they wanna know what types of drills or routines
that are your favorite, that will help them
maybe get to your level.
What drills would you recommend?
- I would say just anything where you're working
on your feet, anything where you're working on your hips,
anything where you're working on changing direction.
But I would say the biggest thing
I would tell a young running back,
try to perfect all aspects of your game.
Every running back has pretty good running ability.
If you're a running back, you can run the football.
But I think what separates the good ones
from the great ones is your ability
to protect your quarterback
and your ability to be a viable receiver.
Work on your pass protection.
Work on knowing your protections.
Work on your route running and your ability
to catch the ball.
Equally as important, if not more important,
if you can't protect the quarterback,
how can the coach even put you on the field?
- What separates you is that added ability,
that pass pro, that route running,
that maybe some other running backs don't have.
- Yeah.
- All right, I'm getting blown up in chat. Listen, chat.
We all know that Zeke wants Jamaal Adams on the Cowboys.
What player would not want Jamaal Adams on their team?
So you can stop asking me in chat, "Zeke,
would you like Jamaal Adams to be on the Dallas Cowboys?"
- I would love to have Jamaal Adams on the Dallas Cowboys.
- [Scooter] Are you happy, chat?
Of course- - I would love to.
- we want a great defender on our team. The heck?
- But that decision is above my pay grade,
so I'm sorry, I can't help you with that.
- There it is. Are you happy? Two more questions.
Best athlete you've ever played against. Any sport.
While you think, I can tell you mine.
I played against this dude at Dr. Phillips.
Okay, I grew up in the suburbs.
My parents were smart though, they were like,
"He's not surrounded by a lotta black people.
We need to integrate him with some black people as well."
They put me in summer camp in the hood. Tangelo Park YMCA.
I go in there thinking I'm 'bout
to just murk all these people.
They produce this dude called Chris Warren.
Chris Warren proceeds to cross me over 27 times in a row.
In a row! Goes on to Ole Miss.
Would be in the NBA right now, but his senior season, ACL.
I think he's overseas now, but to this day,
I could never guard him and I still can't.
It's either between him
or Shane Larkin, who also plays overseas,
also went to Dr. Phillips High School.
Could not stay in front of them no matter how hard I tried.
Who is the best athlete you have every played against?
- I would have to say Joey Bosa.
I remember coming into Ohio State.
Freshman year, me and Joey, we were close.
But he was on defense and I was on offense,
so we would have to go against each other.
When I think of a great athlete,
I just think of your athletic ability,
but what's more impressive to me
is when someone's like 270 and can move like your 230.
That dude was different.
He literally walked on campus and was manhandling everybody.
And could do a backflip!
He can just stand in place and do a backflip.
Like, that is absurd. - And he's 270?
- I think Joey's now, he's probably like 250, 255,
but when we got to college he was like 270, 275.
And this dude could stand there and just do a backflip.
- Bro, I can't even do a cartwheel.
- I think my head's too big to do a backflip.
(Scooter sputters) (Zeke laughs)
My head wouldn't get all the way around. (laughs)
- Final question. Everyone wants to know this.
Is Sean Lee playing?
- Yes. Sean Lee is playing.
And when Sean Lee's playing, we are a better team.
- There it is, ladies and gentlemen.
I'm a grown man.