Dallas Cowboys Recent Shortcomings Have Hurt Dez Bryant’s Current Standing

 by Ryan Bush

Let’s just take the bull by the horns and admit that America’s value system is completely out-of-whack.  No, this is not a reference to any recent proclamation from the campaign platform of President Barack Obama or Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.  It’s not even an acknowledgement that way too many fans are enjoying way too many games of this long, and somewhat tiresome, NFL preseason. Instead, let’s take a moment and revisit the recent unpleasantness surrounding the Dallas Cowboys Football Club.

Wide receiver Dez Bryant turned himself into authorities just prior to the beginning of training camp on a domestic disturbance charge that was eventually classified as an alleged assault on his mother.  Though details of the story have been sketchy and incomplete, Bryant admitted he was in the wrong and showed proper remorse at allowing an innocent argument to make the national news.

Dez Bryant & Mom at Press conference

The fact that it wasn’t his first run-in with the law has forced the Cowboys to impose a list of off-the-field guidelines that will supposedly keep Bryant away from any vile influences who habitually cause the kind of trouble that the third-year receiver has proved prone for falling into.  And so down came the gauntlet squarely on Bryant’s head Sunday morning in typical prohibitive fashion.  No alcohol.  No strip clubs.  And a bodyguard at all times.

According to the pulse of the ever fluctuating Cowboys poll, Bryant’s popularity has crashed through the cellar floor.  Fans are tired of his late night altercations, his debt, and his act of perceived carelessness on the field.  They are, to put it in a nutshell that everyone can understand, ashamed.  Thoroughly ashamed.  Even disgustedly ashamed.

Bryant is bordering on the status of an outcast, even more than he is to receiving a lengthy suspension from the NFL front-office.

Now, without condoning assaulting your mother, or developing a taste for over-exuberant spending, the reaction from Cowboys fans over this latest Bryant episode reeks of a Texas-sized portion of disingenuousness.  For out of the fog of year’s past, comes the memory of another wide receiver that wears No. 88 being caught in a hotel room by police with two “self-employed models” and a load of pot large enough that would result in anybody being thrown in the slammer and hauled up before the judge.

Fans were outraged during the court proceedings, and then came completely unhinged when the NFL suspended him for the first four games of the 1996 season.  This was three-time Super Bowl-winning receiver Michael Irvin under the knife, so many found it expedient to overlook the fact that he was involved in trafficking dope and an active life of infidelity.  Big deal, fans cried!  The Cowboys were looking to make it four championships in a five-year span, and would need their top wide receiver on the field for every game, prompting the throngs into a united cry for leniency.

It has long been acknowledged within the sporting world that there are no sinners in a crowd of winners.  A Super Bowl makes model citizens out of every dark-hooded knight, three Super Bowls untouchable legends.

Dez isn’t anywhere close to receiving that kind of treatment.  Yes, he’s wearing the right jersey number, but has yet to develop a knack for purchasing the right kind of jewelry.