Dez Bryant went on a locker room rant directed at several reporters
Dallas Cowboys star wide receiver Dez Bryant went off on a 10-15 minute, expletive-filled rant directed at multiple reporters on Thursday in the Dallas Cowboys locker room.
The rant started over some media reports that Bryant was upset about, but reportedly escalated when a teammate got involved and accused one reporter of using a racial slur.
You can here part of the rant here in the background, as reporters are speaking with tight end Jason Witten (via the Dallas Star-Telegram and ESPN).
Another video caught Bryant screaming at a member of the Cowboys' public relations staff after the rant directed at the reporters.
According to Pat Doney of NBC 5 in Dallas, Bryant first "went off" on Doney, before moving on to others.
According to David Moore of the Dallas Morning News, Bryant was then upset at Jean-Jacques Taylor of ESPNDallas.com for a story he wrote a week ago. That story starts with the line: "The Dallas Cowboys need more from their petulant Pro Bowl receiver than a profanity-laced tirade and excuses for his lack of production."
Moore describes a scene in which Bryant and Taylor are arguing, but that it was no worse than any other athlete-reporter argument. However, wide receiver Devin Street then interjected himself into the conversation and that's when things got ugly:
At this point, the conversation is no more contentious than what normally transpires when an athlete disagrees with something a reporter has written. Receiver Devin Street then inserts himself into the conversation and Taylor responds, "ain't nobody even talking to you.''
Street appears shocked, believing Taylor used a racial epithet. He repeats the word. Bryant points at Taylor and begins yelling the N-word over and over, saying a reporter can't say that to a player.
From this point, things escalated.
Both Moore and John Clayton of ESPN report that none of the other reporters in the area heard Taylor say the n-word. Moore adds that even two Cowboys officials agreed that Taylor did not use the word with Moore describing their reactions as "Street simply misunderstood."
It should be noted that Taylor is African-American.
At this point, Robert Klemko of Peter King's TheMMQB.com, sent out a Tweet about the rant.
Moore reports that Bryant was still yelling, but mostly at the media in general but at some point cooled off enough to check his phone. Moore speculates that Bryant saw Klemko's tweet and then began another rant directed at him.
"Don't single me out like that,'' Bryant yelled at Klemko. "If you're going to report something, report it right. All right? Report it right. Go report that ... For real. This ain't a game, dog. This ain't a game.''
After several players and PR staff (seen in video above) try to intervene, coach Jason Garrett came into the locker room.
"Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty,'' Bryant boomed, according to Moore. "They're [expletive] dirty, coach. They're dirty. They're dirty, all of them, and especially you (points to Klemko).''
At that point, Bryant issued a tweet confirming that he "blew up," and why he did, again accusing Taylor of using the n-word.
We have reached out to the Cowboys and Bryant's lawyer for comment.