Dallas Cowboys rookie Ezekiel Elliott has been accused of beating his girlfriend – but he claimed the bruises all over her body happened during a bar fight.
Tiffany Thompson, 20, took to Instagram on Friday – Elliott’s 21st birthday – to document the multiple bruises he allegedly inflicted on her and to say that she had been ‘mentally and physically’ abused for months.
She tagged him in a post on the social media site alongside pictures of bruises on her arms and neck and in another, claimed she had been ‘thrown across the room’ and ‘choked.’
A domestic violence report accusing Elliot, who was picked by the Cowboys in the first round of the NFL draft pick in April, of assaulting a woman was filed in Ohio on Friday, TMZ reports.
Scroll down for video
The woman was identified as Thompson, who is known to be his girlfriend, by ESPN.
She alleged that she had been assaulted by the former Ohio State star while in a parked vehicle on Friday morning and accused him on beating her several times that week.
When officers arrived at the scene, she said she had suffered injuries to her wrist and had a red mark, but reportedly refused medical treatment.
When police contacted Elliot, he denied the allegations.
A spokesman for Elliot told TMZ: ‘I can assure you [the allegations] are not true.’
The report adds that police spoke to four witnesses, one said to have been in the car at the time of the alleged incident.
All of them denied seeing an assault, the report says, and as a result, Elliot was not arrested.
Police referred the case to the prosecutor’s office due to conflicting statements, they said.
They also added it was because they could not establish whether the couple had recently lived together.
Thompson said that they lived together for three months, while he denied it – and claimed to have only paid her rent, ESPN reports.
She claimed that Elliot had beat her ‘several times’ over a five-day period, leaving her with numerous bruises. He claimed she sustained the injuries in a bar fight.
The police report noted that she is 5ft 5 and weighing 120lbs, while running back Elliot is 6ft and weighs 225lbs.
On Friday morning, Thompson had turned to Instagram to showcase her injuries and blast Elliot in a public forum – but then made her account private.
In one post, she shared pictures, some taken inside a car, which showed purple bruises on her neck, arms and legs.
‘Just for every woman out there getting abuses it’s time to put a stop to it,’ she captioned it.
‘This has been happening to me for months and it finally got out of control to where I was picked up and thrown across the room by my arms.
‘Thrown into walls. Being choked to where I have to gasp for breath. Bruised everywhere, mentally and physically abused. It’s not okay.’
She added that she was told that it was simply ‘tough love.’
The Cowboys are aware of the allegations, according to ESPN.
The NFL will be reviewing the case under their personal conduct policy, a spokesman told the website.
The allegations cast a cloud of doubt over the start of Elliot’s NFL career.
His Cowboys jersey has been the best-seller over the past three months since he was picked fourth overall in the first round of this year’s draft.
Elliot, of Alton, Illinois, scored 41 touchdowns over his last two seasons with Ohio State and rushed more than 1,800 in both – winning the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year award last year.
