Dez Bryant: Another Victim Of the NFL Freeze Out?

The NFL has shown they are willing to do whatever it takes to restore order. That includes subtlely keeping distractions off the field. Is Dez Bryant another victim?

Up until recently the main “crime” committed by certain players was kneeling for the national anthem. A move started by former quarterback Colin Kaepernick in protest of police brutality against minorities. This caused a firestorm of negative media coverage. It got so bad that even President Trump became involved. Ratings began to dip sharply, putting the league under a level of scrutiny it hadn’t seen in decades.

So steps were taken. When Kaepernick became a free agent in 2017, nothing happened. Despite being a proven quarterback who’d taken a team to a Super Bowl just a few years back, Kaepernick couldn’t even secure a backup job. NFL people insisted it had nothing to do with the protests, but anybody who believed them was totally naive. The league was acting out of anger and a feeling of survival. The only way to address this problem quickly was to remove it from the picture.

Can’t say it hasn’t worked. The fire over Kaepernick has cooled over the past months. Ratings are up as well. Yet the freeze outs continue. Kaepernick’s former teammate Eric Reid, a former Pro Bowl safety who is 26-years old, remains jobless. He too participated in the protests. Now the reasons for exiling players may be spreading beyond the anthem issue.

Now it may be more about just being an unwelcome distraction.

Dez Bryant now may be paying for the sins of his past

Once upon a time, Bryant was one of the best wide receivers in football. He was a terror to defenses from 2012 to 2014, almost getting the Dallas Cowboys to an NFC championship if not for a bad call by officials we all know too well. However, he also made it clear throughout that time and his entire career that with his great ability, there was an equally great ego.

Bryant has been a player who thrives on emotions. That can be a double-edged sword in sports. It drives the player to untold heights of success due to their passion and drive. At the same time, the emotions can tend to boil over off the field, getting them in trouble with the media due to an action or comment seen as not befitting the league standards.

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Bryant is guilty of this on more than one occasion. He just got away with it because he was a dominant player. Now that he’s a free agent and coming off the worst season of his career? He’s finding out that there’s a price to be paid for being a headache to the NFL. Right or wrong, this is the primary explanation for why he remains unsigned.