His body was just not built for it. Dez was the type of receiver that, when his talent started to fade, it was all over. He just couldn’t run all the routes in the route tree so once he lost his athleticism that was all she wrote.
Dez's body was build for the HOF. He was a freak. His mind was not. He didn't work his craft hard enough to make the most of his years of being a freak, or play effectively when he lost the I'm Just Better Than You advantage.
Even in his young years, I doubted he could last, as he'd look great as he skied, but he'd come down from feet in the air on his hip, his back, his shoulder. Might have lasted longer if he had learned how to spread the impact when he hit the ground, but he never seemed to. I remember him landing on his hip after a jump ball, and he's gimping about after he gets up. I thought then "he's not gonna last long that way".
He had some great years and some great highlites. Another player with his body broken by the Cowboys.