Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant walked off the field during his team’s loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday when there was still 1:21 remaining in the game. The Cowboys had blown a 36-24 lead with roughly eight minutes left, and Tony Romo had just tossed interceptions on back-to-back possessions. Somehow, all of Bryant’s teammates managed to stick around until the clock hit 0:00.
On Wednesday, NFL coaching legend John Madden was asked about Bryant’s antics. When asked what he would have said to Bryant if he was Jason Garrett, Madden said he would have told the star receiver, “Get your butt back here.”
“There’s no excuse for it,” Madden told Rich Gannon and Adam Schein on SiriusXM NFL Radio, via the Dallas Morning News. “Because he’s such a good player, we’re all going to make excuses for him. What he did was wrong.
“There are some things that you let go, and then when things go poorly, you can’t pull them back. Dez Bryant has been in and out of the doghouse and I don’t know if they ever got him straight. They were a little lax on him when he first came in as a rookie. Maybe they let him do things they shouldn’t have, things that they have to live with now.”
It’s hard to disagree with Madden. Bryant tried to explain his early departure by claiming he did not want people to see him cry, but that is a bogus excuse. He needs to stop acting like a drama queen — no matter how “positive” his emotions are when he erupts on the sideline. Part of being a professional athlete is learning to control your emotions, not use them as an excuse.
