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READY FOR PRIMETIME?
In a show-stopping move, the Cowboys traded up in the first round to select wide receiver Dez Bryant, an immensely talented player working hard to overcome his difficult past.
by Mickey Spagnola
The past seemingly never passes, as if one of those creepy neck tattoos virtually impossible to scrub away.
Dez Bryant might have thought differently, believing when the Dallas Cowboys, the team he grew up watching from no more than 180 miles away in the state of Texas, boldly selected the best wide receiver in the NFL Draft and possibly one of the top 10 overall players available, with the 24th pick, that his past had been buried.
You know, his past, how he had been suspended by the NCAA last season, his junior year at Oklahoma State, for not fessing up to a rendezvous with Deion Sanders, costing him nine games and possibly millions of dollars.
How, as a child born to a 15-year-old mother, he lived in trailer after trailer, with family after family, since his mother Angela had given birth to three kids by the age of 18 and was serving time in prison by age 19 for selling drugs.
How he almost didn't qualify for college, so developmentally delayed he required special education courses along the way to keep him on track for a timely high school graduation.
How during three years at Oklahoma State, where a dorm room with his own bed must have felt like staying at The Ritz, he struggled some with independence. To the point his former college coach Mike Gundy veiled some of his comments before the draft by saying of the Big 12 star, "There is a lot of talk about his history and that he is different. He is different from everybody else." Or by saying, "I think Dez had teetered on the edge in certain cases."
There is a litany of such stories.
So when he arrived that April 23 at The Ranch smartly dressed in a fine dark suit and a striking deep pinkish shirt, proudly wearing his just-received Dallas Cowboys hat and nearly yes-sirring and no-sirring everyone into submission, to him this was cathartic. He basically said so, insisting, "After this, I'm flipping over a new chapter in my life. I'm a Dallas Cowboy."
Chapter? Considering everything, he dearly hopes it's a new book.
"The things that happened in the past, they happened in the past," Bryant politely said. "We're trying to fix what's going on now. My family and I have been doing great - we're doing fine - and people don't talk about that. They don't look at that. They just look at my background. They didn't look at what's going on now."
Yet Bryant, all of 21, still had to deal with that character tattoo when he arrived at The Ranch as the first wide receiver the Cowboys have selected in the first round of an NFL Draft since taking Alvin Harper with the 12th pick back in 1991, and at that becoming only the fifth wide receiver the Cowboys have ever selected with a first-round pick.
And there would be more. By the time he arrived for the start of the rookie minicamp on April 30, national stories began circulating about how Miami general manager Jeff Ireland, the Cowboys former scouting director who followed Bill Parcells to the Dolphins, had somewhat crassly asked Bryant during his visit there if his "mother was a prostitute?" And even after Ireland apologized for what surely he hoped would never get out, the story grew larger and more invasive when more of the conversation was leaked, the part about Bryant saying his father was "a pimp" when Ireland asked what his dad had done for a living.
So there Bryant was, having completed his first football practice since September of last year, thinking he finally had moved past his past, yet once again still having to answer even more questions about what once was.
Again, quite composed, Bryant was not antagonized by the uncomfortable line of questioning, saying, "I put that in the past. I want to just move on to the next chapter in my life."
But the next chapter still had some passages from past chapters, Bryant seen bent over during that first practice, gasping for air, obviously not in good enough shape to play football - even without pads in a mere minicamp. Others weren't either, and haven't been over the years. As Manny Johnson, last year's seventh-round pick out of Oklahoma, said when asked about the furious pace of his first minicamp practice, the wide receiver who spent this past season on the Cowboys' practice squad said, "It was crazy. I was about to die."
A seventh-round pick can do so in peace, but not a first-rounder. Not when you're Dez Bryant. So he had to answer more questions, and yet again handled himself with aplomb, deflecting the criticism by saying, "It was just a great feeling to get through that little hard time."
Maybe that is why Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin showed up with sons "little" Michael and Elijah in tow the very next day for the morning practice at his old stomping grounds, partly to meet and see just who the Cowboys had given his former No. 88 jersey to, and, knowing Michael, mostly hoping his two cents would give the kid a break.
Irvin eagerly watched Bryant run routes, some passing right by his sideline perch. Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips then would ask the Cowboys' all-time leading receiver to say a few words to the draft choices, rookie free agents and handful of first-year guys following practice. And, of course, Irvin had a little one-on-one with Bryant afterward.
Irvin certainly knew what Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had said after selecting the wideout on whom 24 teams had passed, avoiding not because of his talent, certainly, or lack of receiver need, but mostly because of his background or fear of what one draft publication called his "immaturity" and of being "too easily influenced and is a follower."
"My wife was out of town," Jones said of Gene the day of the first round, "and she said, 'While I'm watching it, tell me which players need to have been picked there for me to jump up and holler, How 'bout them Cowboys!' He was certainly one of the two or three that we mentioned."
Or he probably had heard Phillips' glowing assessment after those first two practices, conditioning notwithstanding.
"He's got tremendous skills," said Phillips, who after 33 years in the league should know something about skills. "I think that's obvious. His ability to catch the football. His ability to adjust to the football. His ability to run with it after he catches it. He really comes off the ball fast and plays fast. I don't see many things he doesn't do well."
So leave it to Irvin to intercede.
"My first impression came yesterday when I heard he almost threw up," Irvin said. "That's great, that's great. I found it interesting, the coverage of it, because I saw it as something great."
A little "Fourth And Long" reincarnated?
"I want you guys to know, and I used to do it around here all the time," Irvin continued to preach. "I used to push myself until I'd throw up, and kept going. … That's the best thing I heard. And that's not how you reported it."
Irvin generally sees life a little bit differently than most everyone else, and maybe that's because he too came from humble beginnings, yet made something out of himself, leaving the University of Miami after four years with a college degree and a national championship before becoming a first-round pick of Tom Landry and the Cowboys in 1988 - not to mention winning three Super Bowls, seeing his name in the Ring of Honor and landing his bust in Canton, Ohio.
But let's not forget Irvin was the 15th of 17 children born to Walter and Pearl of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Let's not forget the stories of Michael eating his morning cereal in water since there was not enough milk to go around. Let's not forget Michael's stories of not being late for dinner because there just might not be any left or eating fast so he could fill up. Much like Dez, Irvin never slept in his own bed until he arrived at Miami. Ketchup sandwiches were a delicacy. Irvin has walked in some of Dez's footsteps.
Irvin balked at revealing just what he told Bryant during their on-field discussion after practice that day, but when asked privately what it takes to overcome some of life's obstacles, a subject he knows a little something about, the man who claims he was "allowed" to wear Drew Pearson's number, came clean about their talk.
"When you grow up in some tough environments, I think a lot of it has to do with how he perceives where he is," Irvin said. "I will share just a little bit about what we shared on a personal level, but the first thing I told him is he should be commended for where he is. A lot of times people pick you up at where you are and they read you are here and they take you from that moment and they make an assessment of who you are, instead of picking you up from where you are hanging from, from your genesis, from your beginning, because then I can make a better assessment to where he is.
"And for him to have started where he started and to be where he is, he is to be commended, saying he's never been arrested or anything. But instead we're talking about issues I talk about with little Michael or Elijah about showing up on time or things like that we all have with our kids. So I told him, you are right here and you are to be commended. Take it that way and hold on to that. Because in the back of his mind (he needs to think) I've been commended and I need to do things to continue to be commended.
"And that's real."
And that's what Bryant's high school football coach, the well-known John Outlaw of Lufkin, had to say.
"Dez has grown up a great deal," said Outlaw, who guided Lufkin to a state title with Bryant on board. "He's not a thief, he's not a criminal, and hasn't failed a drug test."
The inevitable result for many a kid growing up in his unenviable environment. Talent never will seem to be the question when it comes to Dez Bryant. Texas head coach Mack Brown remembers this from their meeting with Oklahoma State in Bryant's sophomore season (2008): "We felt he was the one guy on the field who could beat us."
So the Longhorns made a special effort to stop Bryant, holding him to six catches for 74 yards. But in so doing, the Longhorns gave up 217 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns, and nearly got beat at home, winning only 28-24.
Says Cowboys receivers coach Ray Sherman, who has coached the likes of Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Terry Glenn and Cris Carter, "Oh man, this guy is a phenom. He's a guy that can return punts, kickoffs, play receiver. He's just a phenomenal athlete. A phenomenal athlete. He's as good as I've seen in a long time. This guy is unique because he's a big, powerful guy that has the ability to make big plays. That's just it - he scores touchdowns. The guy is just a phenomenal athlete. He can be as good as he wants to be."
Bryant's talent does not seem to be in question; just his past, which still clouds his present. Like two days after the conclusion of the rookie minicamp when yet another story emerged pertaining to the shaky background of his mother, documenting how she has been arrested twice within the past two years, the second time for delivery of an illegal substance and possession of an illegal substance. It was reported she pled guilty to those charges, receiving deferred adjudication and placed on probation for 10 years.
The question then becomes will his past, the environment from which he comes, cloud his future, too? That some teams could not answer that question to their satisfaction is why the Dallas Cowboys had the opportunity to snatch such a talented player so late in the draft. Teams have learned not to take risks with top 10 picks. (See Lawrence Phillips.)
The Cowboys did their homework, to their credit, and answered that question to their satisfaction. And they remain committed to pointing Bryant in the right direction, which became their responsibility after minimizing the gamble at selection 24, the pick before Baltimore was going to take him.
Maybe The Ranch can be his safe haven.
"Right there, one thing I received watching him today is that's his sanctuary out there. There is where it's all OK," Irvin said, pointing to the practice field, knowing that is where he too found solace. "We talked a lot about where he came from. We talked a lot about what was said, what he's going through and what may happen in the future. But nobody ever talks about 'there's his sanctuary. There's his peace.' And when you get a guy where his sanctuary and his peace are on the field, you can get some things out of him. You can get some good play out of him because out there everything is all right, and he'll always give you all he has on that field.
"He'll be a winner on the field. We have to just make sure everything works out everywhere (else) for him."
Then and only then will the haunting vestiges of his ever-present past fade away.
Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine, May, 2010
In a show-stopping move, the Cowboys traded up in the first round to select wide receiver Dez Bryant, an immensely talented player working hard to overcome his difficult past.
by Mickey Spagnola
The past seemingly never passes, as if one of those creepy neck tattoos virtually impossible to scrub away.
Dez Bryant might have thought differently, believing when the Dallas Cowboys, the team he grew up watching from no more than 180 miles away in the state of Texas, boldly selected the best wide receiver in the NFL Draft and possibly one of the top 10 overall players available, with the 24th pick, that his past had been buried.
You know, his past, how he had been suspended by the NCAA last season, his junior year at Oklahoma State, for not fessing up to a rendezvous with Deion Sanders, costing him nine games and possibly millions of dollars.
How, as a child born to a 15-year-old mother, he lived in trailer after trailer, with family after family, since his mother Angela had given birth to three kids by the age of 18 and was serving time in prison by age 19 for selling drugs.
How he almost didn't qualify for college, so developmentally delayed he required special education courses along the way to keep him on track for a timely high school graduation.
How during three years at Oklahoma State, where a dorm room with his own bed must have felt like staying at The Ritz, he struggled some with independence. To the point his former college coach Mike Gundy veiled some of his comments before the draft by saying of the Big 12 star, "There is a lot of talk about his history and that he is different. He is different from everybody else." Or by saying, "I think Dez had teetered on the edge in certain cases."
There is a litany of such stories.
So when he arrived that April 23 at The Ranch smartly dressed in a fine dark suit and a striking deep pinkish shirt, proudly wearing his just-received Dallas Cowboys hat and nearly yes-sirring and no-sirring everyone into submission, to him this was cathartic. He basically said so, insisting, "After this, I'm flipping over a new chapter in my life. I'm a Dallas Cowboy."
Chapter? Considering everything, he dearly hopes it's a new book.
"The things that happened in the past, they happened in the past," Bryant politely said. "We're trying to fix what's going on now. My family and I have been doing great - we're doing fine - and people don't talk about that. They don't look at that. They just look at my background. They didn't look at what's going on now."
Yet Bryant, all of 21, still had to deal with that character tattoo when he arrived at The Ranch as the first wide receiver the Cowboys have selected in the first round of an NFL Draft since taking Alvin Harper with the 12th pick back in 1991, and at that becoming only the fifth wide receiver the Cowboys have ever selected with a first-round pick.
And there would be more. By the time he arrived for the start of the rookie minicamp on April 30, national stories began circulating about how Miami general manager Jeff Ireland, the Cowboys former scouting director who followed Bill Parcells to the Dolphins, had somewhat crassly asked Bryant during his visit there if his "mother was a prostitute?" And even after Ireland apologized for what surely he hoped would never get out, the story grew larger and more invasive when more of the conversation was leaked, the part about Bryant saying his father was "a pimp" when Ireland asked what his dad had done for a living.
So there Bryant was, having completed his first football practice since September of last year, thinking he finally had moved past his past, yet once again still having to answer even more questions about what once was.
Again, quite composed, Bryant was not antagonized by the uncomfortable line of questioning, saying, "I put that in the past. I want to just move on to the next chapter in my life."
But the next chapter still had some passages from past chapters, Bryant seen bent over during that first practice, gasping for air, obviously not in good enough shape to play football - even without pads in a mere minicamp. Others weren't either, and haven't been over the years. As Manny Johnson, last year's seventh-round pick out of Oklahoma, said when asked about the furious pace of his first minicamp practice, the wide receiver who spent this past season on the Cowboys' practice squad said, "It was crazy. I was about to die."
A seventh-round pick can do so in peace, but not a first-rounder. Not when you're Dez Bryant. So he had to answer more questions, and yet again handled himself with aplomb, deflecting the criticism by saying, "It was just a great feeling to get through that little hard time."
Maybe that is why Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin showed up with sons "little" Michael and Elijah in tow the very next day for the morning practice at his old stomping grounds, partly to meet and see just who the Cowboys had given his former No. 88 jersey to, and, knowing Michael, mostly hoping his two cents would give the kid a break.
Irvin eagerly watched Bryant run routes, some passing right by his sideline perch. Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips then would ask the Cowboys' all-time leading receiver to say a few words to the draft choices, rookie free agents and handful of first-year guys following practice. And, of course, Irvin had a little one-on-one with Bryant afterward.
Irvin certainly knew what Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had said after selecting the wideout on whom 24 teams had passed, avoiding not because of his talent, certainly, or lack of receiver need, but mostly because of his background or fear of what one draft publication called his "immaturity" and of being "too easily influenced and is a follower."
"My wife was out of town," Jones said of Gene the day of the first round, "and she said, 'While I'm watching it, tell me which players need to have been picked there for me to jump up and holler, How 'bout them Cowboys!' He was certainly one of the two or three that we mentioned."
Or he probably had heard Phillips' glowing assessment after those first two practices, conditioning notwithstanding.
"He's got tremendous skills," said Phillips, who after 33 years in the league should know something about skills. "I think that's obvious. His ability to catch the football. His ability to adjust to the football. His ability to run with it after he catches it. He really comes off the ball fast and plays fast. I don't see many things he doesn't do well."
So leave it to Irvin to intercede.
"My first impression came yesterday when I heard he almost threw up," Irvin said. "That's great, that's great. I found it interesting, the coverage of it, because I saw it as something great."
A little "Fourth And Long" reincarnated?
"I want you guys to know, and I used to do it around here all the time," Irvin continued to preach. "I used to push myself until I'd throw up, and kept going. … That's the best thing I heard. And that's not how you reported it."
Irvin generally sees life a little bit differently than most everyone else, and maybe that's because he too came from humble beginnings, yet made something out of himself, leaving the University of Miami after four years with a college degree and a national championship before becoming a first-round pick of Tom Landry and the Cowboys in 1988 - not to mention winning three Super Bowls, seeing his name in the Ring of Honor and landing his bust in Canton, Ohio.
But let's not forget Irvin was the 15th of 17 children born to Walter and Pearl of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Let's not forget the stories of Michael eating his morning cereal in water since there was not enough milk to go around. Let's not forget Michael's stories of not being late for dinner because there just might not be any left or eating fast so he could fill up. Much like Dez, Irvin never slept in his own bed until he arrived at Miami. Ketchup sandwiches were a delicacy. Irvin has walked in some of Dez's footsteps.
Irvin balked at revealing just what he told Bryant during their on-field discussion after practice that day, but when asked privately what it takes to overcome some of life's obstacles, a subject he knows a little something about, the man who claims he was "allowed" to wear Drew Pearson's number, came clean about their talk.
"When you grow up in some tough environments, I think a lot of it has to do with how he perceives where he is," Irvin said. "I will share just a little bit about what we shared on a personal level, but the first thing I told him is he should be commended for where he is. A lot of times people pick you up at where you are and they read you are here and they take you from that moment and they make an assessment of who you are, instead of picking you up from where you are hanging from, from your genesis, from your beginning, because then I can make a better assessment to where he is.
"And for him to have started where he started and to be where he is, he is to be commended, saying he's never been arrested or anything. But instead we're talking about issues I talk about with little Michael or Elijah about showing up on time or things like that we all have with our kids. So I told him, you are right here and you are to be commended. Take it that way and hold on to that. Because in the back of his mind (he needs to think) I've been commended and I need to do things to continue to be commended.
"And that's real."
And that's what Bryant's high school football coach, the well-known John Outlaw of Lufkin, had to say.
"Dez has grown up a great deal," said Outlaw, who guided Lufkin to a state title with Bryant on board. "He's not a thief, he's not a criminal, and hasn't failed a drug test."
The inevitable result for many a kid growing up in his unenviable environment. Talent never will seem to be the question when it comes to Dez Bryant. Texas head coach Mack Brown remembers this from their meeting with Oklahoma State in Bryant's sophomore season (2008): "We felt he was the one guy on the field who could beat us."
So the Longhorns made a special effort to stop Bryant, holding him to six catches for 74 yards. But in so doing, the Longhorns gave up 217 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns, and nearly got beat at home, winning only 28-24.
Says Cowboys receivers coach Ray Sherman, who has coached the likes of Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Terry Glenn and Cris Carter, "Oh man, this guy is a phenom. He's a guy that can return punts, kickoffs, play receiver. He's just a phenomenal athlete. A phenomenal athlete. He's as good as I've seen in a long time. This guy is unique because he's a big, powerful guy that has the ability to make big plays. That's just it - he scores touchdowns. The guy is just a phenomenal athlete. He can be as good as he wants to be."
Bryant's talent does not seem to be in question; just his past, which still clouds his present. Like two days after the conclusion of the rookie minicamp when yet another story emerged pertaining to the shaky background of his mother, documenting how she has been arrested twice within the past two years, the second time for delivery of an illegal substance and possession of an illegal substance. It was reported she pled guilty to those charges, receiving deferred adjudication and placed on probation for 10 years.
The question then becomes will his past, the environment from which he comes, cloud his future, too? That some teams could not answer that question to their satisfaction is why the Dallas Cowboys had the opportunity to snatch such a talented player so late in the draft. Teams have learned not to take risks with top 10 picks. (See Lawrence Phillips.)
The Cowboys did their homework, to their credit, and answered that question to their satisfaction. And they remain committed to pointing Bryant in the right direction, which became their responsibility after minimizing the gamble at selection 24, the pick before Baltimore was going to take him.
Maybe The Ranch can be his safe haven.
"Right there, one thing I received watching him today is that's his sanctuary out there. There is where it's all OK," Irvin said, pointing to the practice field, knowing that is where he too found solace. "We talked a lot about where he came from. We talked a lot about what was said, what he's going through and what may happen in the future. But nobody ever talks about 'there's his sanctuary. There's his peace.' And when you get a guy where his sanctuary and his peace are on the field, you can get some things out of him. You can get some good play out of him because out there everything is all right, and he'll always give you all he has on that field.
"He'll be a winner on the field. We have to just make sure everything works out everywhere (else) for him."
Then and only then will the haunting vestiges of his ever-present past fade away.
Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine, May, 2010
