English,
We live in a society that, for the most part (remove the obvious political reality here) needs to start with the assumption that you are innocent until proven beyond a reasonable doubt, or at least as long as reasonable doubt exists. Not all doubt but at least reasonable doubt.
Generally, people that are victimized tend to be victimized by those in their circles. So it makes sense the police would want to talk to him if someone he was close to died, and there was a reasonable concern that he could benefit from her death (not saying he did or did not). Fair enough.
But it is not reasonable to assume that because someone is accused of something they are guilty. People accuse people all the time for a variety of reasons, from personal gain to petty revenge, even to a sense of power. The idea that accusation should mean = assumption of truth, is ridiculous.
For that reason, taking a flyer made sense. Now, I have been clear I don' t about what Elliott did and I don't know what happened with Hardy, but there is enough doubt there I would not be concerned with his signing. My issue with Hardy is his track record of disregarding his team and his coach.
Terrible people still help teams win games. Charles Haley was a borderline sex offender from the stories, and because of that he was cut from the 49ers. But that was the difference that propelled the Cowboys over the 49ers for years. They gave up SBs for that move, was it worth it? That is a matter of opinion. He still did his job, and still won, just somewhere else.
For the record, I would not be OK with a rapist on my team, nor am I saying he is one. But that stand hurt the 49ers and did not really hurt Haley.
It wouldn't stop me from playing Elliott though. And it wouldn't stop me from drafting La'El - though I would not sign him until he was cleared. But it wasn't like taking on a flyer that COULD be innocent and WAS ...did not make sense.
There is a huge, ginormous gap between a murderer and someone the police want to question. I don't think it was unreasonable to expect because there was not enough time to evaluate guilt vs innocence that you just give the benefit of the doubt to the player so the legal system can run its course.