Dez Bryant seems to not be a fan of the media. At the same time, he seems to be pulling a Donald Trump by claiming the media isn’t painting the whole picture.
Just last week, Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver Dez Bryant reportedly missed both an MRI and a team meeting. The news wasn’t too surprising, as Bryant and the Cowboys have butted heads a lot in recent years.
However, a week after those reports emerged, Bryant is now calling those reports and others as well crazy.
“We don’t even know who’s saying it,” said Bryant, after ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Bryant had missed 20 to 40 meetings over his career. “That’s the crazy part about it. I get messages from my friends, talking about, ‘It’s just crazy.’ Because it is crazy.”
Bryant didn’t play during the Cowboys’ 24-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers this weekend after hurting his knee the week before. Of course, that injured knee led Bryant to miss an MRI on Monday and team meetings on Tuesday.
That ultimately led to one Cowboy to tell ESPN it was the latest in a series of careless mistakes by Bryant.
“If you were hoping for him to come to a scheduled meeting, he may or may not be there. But if you need a first down on third-and-14, throw it to Dez,” said the Cowboys player, who spoke to ESPN under the condition he remain anonymous.
This led Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones to respond by saying that meetings have always been an issue, but the number of meetings missed wasn’t correct.
“Since the beginning of time, meetings and the timeliness of his meetings have been his No. 1 issues,” Jones said. “Because only God knows how many of his meetings one way or another he has missed.”
Of course, Bryant had to respond to the reports he’d missed a lot of meetings over his career.
“Twenty, 40 meetings? Tell me when. Tell me, please. Just tell me,” Bryant said. “At the same time, man, I’m not going to lose focus on some he-say, she-say. We don’t even know who say, to be honest, because I know exactly what we’ve been building in this organization. It’s totally different. It’s nothing like in the past.”
While the past may be different, missing an MRI and a team meeting while not communicating with coaches within a 48 hour period isn’t a good look. As a result, ESPN reported Bryant hired a driver to help improve his attendance at said meetings.
“You see me as a man,” Bryant said. “I owned up to mine, and that’s exactly what I’m going to continue to keep on doing. I refuse to let any of this crazy crap take me off of what we’re trying to build here.”
Bryant is a tremendous wide receiver who when healthy and behaving appropriately is one of the best in the game. Sadly for him and the Cowboys, that doesn’t happen too often.
[ESPN]
