Rookie receiver Dez Bryant of the Dallas Cowboys, had decided, until Tuesday, that he would not take part in any of the traditional rookie initiations that are part of nearly all professional sports, and for the most part, are thought of as rite of passage, and over the long haul, are perceived as a method of bonding young players in with the veterans.
According to ESPNDallas.com, veteran receiver Roy Williams gave his pads to Bryant after Sunday’s morning practice, but Bryant declined to carry them. In response to the rookie’s ritual refusal, Williams threatened to take his response to “step two”, while being vague as to what might be involved in that next escalation.
Even if Bryant turns out to be an outstanding player, his initial refusal to take part in rituals that are a decades old tradition, and are harmless in nature, was not going to earn him any respect from his teammates or peers elsewhere in the NFL. If anything, it would have isolated him from the rest of the team, who would have perceived him, as a spoiled egotistical brat. Whether Bryant’s initial refusal to participate was his own idea, or it came from someone else, it was a poorly thought out strategy. Every professional sport in North America, the NHL, NBA, MLB, and the NFL, all have similar practices, that are followed within guidelines as to what is and isn’t acceptable.
As detailed in the article,some of the best coaches in the history of the NFL, were known to make this a part of the growing process for the youngsters who were trying to break into the league. “ Bill Parcells used to make first-round picks bring him water during breaks in practice. The Cowboys rookie offensive linemen are given awful haircuts by the veterans at some point during each training camp.”
Williams said: “ Everybody has to go through it……I had to go through it . No matter if you’re a number one pick or the 7000th pick, you’ve still got to do something when you’re a rookie………I carried the pads. I paid for the dinners. I paid for the lunches . I did everything I was supposed to do ,because I didn’t want to be that guy.” Williams provided some history as to what he has witnessed in rookie initiations. “ I’ve seen the guys take people’s credit cards and go fill up their cards and wife’s cards and everything. There’s a lot of dirt that goes on in that locker room.”
As for Bryant,up until yesterday, he was steadfast in his refusal to participate in the time tested tradition in all sports: “ I don’t believe in that at all……..We have a goal here. It’s not about playing games .It’s all about just trying to do the right thing and achieve our goal.”
So what was it that finally made Bryant see the light, and change his attitude on Tuesday ? It seems that a conversation with former Charger and Patriot, Rodney Harrison, played a major role in getting the young man to be part of the team building process. Harrison told Bryant: “ ….this is a situation where this is a custom and a ritual that was around before you were even born. I had to do it and everyone had to do it.”
Unfortunately, Harrison,a two time Super Bowl winner with New England, also taught the rookie about the always convenient game of blaming the media, for the negative fallout from Bryant’s initial reluctance to be part of the relatively tame initiation, of carrying a veteran’s pads. Harrison told him: “ You’re Dez Bryant and anything the media can do, they will do to make you look like a bad guy. You can’t do this. You have to show humility and walk up to him (Roy Williams ) and say I’m going to carry your pads….. He (Dez) sais it’s not going to be a problem……It’s a done deal.”
It would have been an even better “deal,” as Harrison would say, if the former safety had taught the young man to accept responsibility for his own actions, and if he refused to participate in normal team rituals, then the consequences would stem from the choice that he made, not from the media doing its job, and reporting the truth, as opposed to covering up for the players or the team.
The comments from Harrison were disappointing to read, coming from a solid veteran and a well spoken football analyst. He should know better than to use the media as the fault or the problem in this situation. This kind of rationalization, will just teach Bryant, that when all else fails, you can always scapegoat the media for all of your problems, no matter what the real reason is for your difficulties. It’s easy to see that Bryant is already playing the blame game, from his closing comments on this situation: “ We’re fine. It’s not even a situation. Me and Roy is great. Not only me and Roy, but the whole team. Ya’ll trying to turn us against each other.”
Oh, of course, Dez and Rodney, that’s how this story evolved ! It was always about the big bad media being the evil people that they are, designing to destroy Dallas. It most certainly makes a lot of sense to me !