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          NFL Nation

          Ezekiel Elliott's support of hometown St. Louis Blues riles Cowboys fans

          • Jean-Jacques Taylor, ESPN Staff WriterMay 12, 2016, 12:50 PM ET
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              Jean-Jacques Taylor joined ESPNDallas.com in August 2011. A native of Dallas, Taylor spent the past 20 years writing for The Dallas Morning News, where he covered high schools sports, the Texas Rangers and spent 11 seasons covering the Dallas Cowboys before becoming a general columnist in 2006.
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          IRVING, Texas -- All Ezekiel Elliott wanted to do was give his hometown St. Louis Blues a shoutout following their 6-1 demolition of the Dallas Stars in Game 7 of their NHL Western Conference semifinal.

          As you can imagine, some folks were thrilled that the Dallas Cowboys’ first-round pick stayed loyal to his St. Louis roots. Others, clearly, were not pleased at the timing of the tweet, since they were still nursing hurt feelings over the Stars' embarrassing performance.

          That, however, is not Elliott's problem.

          C'mon, people, Elliott spent his youth and adolescence in St. Louis. The Cowboys made him their No. 1 pick, fourth overall, a couple of weeks ago. Did you really think he was going to turn on his hometown teams that quickly? Of course not. Give the kid time.

          As Elliott has success here and establishes himself in the community, then, like a lot of local athletes -- the Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki and Texas Rangers’ Prince Fielder come to mind -- he will likely start to feel a kinship with the local teams and root for them.

          Until then, cut Elliott some slack.

          Elliott's referring to St. Louis goalie Brian Elliott, the man who shut down the Stars. Don't think the local hockey fans will like this tweet any better.

          Oh well, training camp starts in a couple of months, at which point folks won't care what hockey team Elliott supports.