Staubach, Pearson and Woodson on Dez Bryant Situation.

I recently did an article that gave my viewpoint on the situation with Dez. Roger Staubach and Drew Pearson were at Luncheon with a Legend and were asked this question: At what point do you think it makes sense for the Cowboys to cut bait with Dez? I decided to share what they both had to say. I also included what Darren Woodsons’ take on it was.

Roger Staubach: “Well I don’t know all the, to be honest with you, all the circumstances. Just what you get on the Ben and Skin show and in the newspaper, so if it’s actually factual that he has had all of these episodes, there is definitely a pattern of behavior that’s not good. It’s affecting him, then it affects your teammates, and what you do on the field, so that’s not good. If you can’t repair that, it affects the rest of the team. I don’t think there’s any excuse in the world, even if you have a bad mother, that you physically do anything to your mother. So I’m not, if that’s true, that a, there’s no excuse for that. Even if it’s a bad mother.”

Drew Pearson: “That’s unfortunate, either good or bad you only get one mother. You know and a, you deal with whatever you get. But a, it’s a tough situation with Dez. I really think he’s a good guy, I spent some time with him at the heroes game, we joked around, we had a good time. I saw how he interacted with the crowd. With the other celebrities that were there participating, and it was all good. Ya know, so deep down he’s a good guy. Ya know, I know he has a good heart. He’s overcome a lot in his life to get where he is. What he has to do is realize that, he can’t let anybody else take that away from him ya know so, to avoid, how do you avoid that? Well you avoid the situation, and sometimes you know you’ve gotta get away from people a, too make the situation better. And I think Dez has to do it.

I came through with Harvey Martin, and I saw how the influx of people came toward Harvey,cause he’s the favorite son from Dallas now a part of the Dallas Cowboys. And I saw Harvey, how he tried to handle all that and it’s impossible. So Dez, being from here, it’s a lot of pressure in a lot of different ways. But you know a family can be the worst, ya know ya love em to death, but they can be the worst as far as a, trying to get a part of a what you’ve accomplished. They feel entitled to that. And you have to be able to be smart enough.

One of the first things Coach Landry told us when we were rookies, when we made the team, he said:

"One of the hardest things your gonna need to learn how to do, now that your a Dallas Cowboy, is how to say no. And it’s not only to the fans, not everybody that wants a piece of you, but saying no to your family."

That’s pretty tough and here’s the deal, if you do one thing, for one member of the family, it spreads throughout the rest of the family like wild fire and then they start lining up wanting you to do something, so he has to be able to separate that out. And he’s a grown man now, he ain’t a kid ya know, in the NFL you’re a grown man. Your maturation process to becoming an adult accelerates because now you’re in a grown situation, playing professional football, makin big money, so now you have to grow up with that, and now you don’t have the privilege like other people to maybe gradually grow up. You have to grow up almost over night. So hopefully he will.”

Roger: “I’m glad we didn’t make big money back in the old days, so my family wouldn’t bug me ya know. We made $25,000 my 1st yr, so my parents were still lending me money.”

It’s interesting to note that neither one directly answered the question. Obviously for political reasons they are not going to say either way whether they think he should be cut. With both of them being high character guys, I am certain they have their reservations about Dez Bryant. Darren Woodson was on Mike and Mike in the morning and I have included some of what he had to say as well.

Darren Woodson: “The Dallas Cowboys have bent over backwards to help Dez Bryant. They hired a guy in David Wells, as a guy who mentors Dez Bryant and basically holds his hand throughout the processes, One of the biggest problems with Dez was, athletically, he was a tremendous athlete, but he had trouble digesting the play book. And they felt that this off season was by far his best off season because he finally started digesting the playbook. The maturity issue was something that they just weren’t able to stand behind.”

“I just don’t think he is ready to get any help. You can hire as many people as you want to hold his hand, it’s going to be up to Dez to get to a point in his life where he makes a serious decision. I feel like I’m one of those guys, one of many of the former players, who feels like Dez Bryant is indebted to this organization. He’s indebted to the Cowboys taking a chance in where they drafted him because he slid in the draft with as much talent as he had. Over the years hiring people to hold his hand, this organization has bent over backwards for this kid and in the end, he has not looked at it this way. He’s still a selfish kid. And we can’t sit here and say well, the Cowboys need to do this and the Cowboys need to do that, this is not about the Dallas Cowboys, this is about one young man that needs to take care of his business, grow up and become an adult.

I think the commissioner is definitely going to step in here at some point and find out whats going on as far as the length of time and whats going on in the situation with his own investigation. I just don’t, in hearing things from inside in Dallas, I don’t think it’s going to progress to that point yet. I think that Dez Bryant will show up at camp and will play this season.”

I have heard many fans use the defense that Dez has never had a role model. Well as Woodson said, they hired a guy to hold his hand and it’s obvious that Dez doesn’t want to be helped. I have inserted a poll and would like your take on it.

Ready to join the SportDFW Nation? Check us out on Facebook, Twitter or contact us at therealsportdfw@gmail.com