![]() Makes you wonder what would have happened had he caught that ball in Green Bay three years ago. Even those of us who loathe the Cowboys can find love for No. But unlike many of his loquacious predecessors, he did get the difference between me and we in plenty of time for us to root for him. Say what you want about Dez Bryant - and much has been, for sure - you can't say he doesn't care, his hoarse, high-pitched voice always in the game, exhorting a teammate to do better, for himself to do better, to bemoan a ball he didn't snag. Forgive him if he didn't have a doctorate in Dale Carnegie, or some other flawless blueprint for handling success. The odds against him going from where he started to where he is now borders on miraculous. He's suffered more than a few indignities, even being asked by pre-draft personnel men if his mother was a prostitute. If you know anything about Bryant before he entered the NFL his life was hardly that of a Hallmark card, or a Rockwell canvas that every kid covets. That's in no way symbolic of is talent, or temerity, both of which warranted a better end than the one he just got - a boot to the back. Dez Bryant's last game with the Cowboys yielded three catches for 24 yards. No one suffers from short-term memory more than an NFL GM. Pro football doesn't leave much room for romance or nostalgia. Once Dallas went to Dak over Tony, life in Dallas changed forever for Dez, his role devolving into that of a possession receiver, if not a secondary or tertiary target. And Bryant was Tony Romo's guy, his primary target and, along with Jason Witten, his safety blanket. The NFL, like life is all about connections. At 29, Bryant is hardly washed up, and played all 16 gams in 2017, catching 69 passes, averaging 12.1 yards per catch. There's been nothing lately to suggest Dez Bryant is a headache anymore, that he grumbles when he doesn't get a dozen catches, or that he wants anything but to win. So when you weigh the perks and quirks, it always comes down to same thing every player of Bryant's caliber has faced over time - production. It's hard to recall the last time Bryant's name appeared anywhere but the box score. But the real distraction was the $16 million cap hit the Cowboys would absorb this coming season. Jerry Jones, or his son Stephen, may say this is about the something else, invoking the ever-opaque Distraction clause. Yet unlike Chad Johnson or Terrell Owens or any number of high-flying wide receivers over the last 20 years who never seemed to break that membrane into maturity, Dez finally seemed to get it.īut the Cowboys just cut Bryant, saying goodbye after eight years, 531 receptions, 7,459 yards, and 73 touchdowns. Bryant was so unpredictable off the field that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones used to have a security detail keeping tabs on him. Equal parts productive and impetuous, the wildly gifted wideout was the latest in a growing line of pass-catchers who couldn't see past his stats, whose numbers had to be weighed against his impact. For the first few years of his career, Dez Bryant was an NFL cliche.
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