Dez Bryant defends sideline outburts, ‘My passion is always positive’
Dez Bryant made no apologies for the heated argument he had with Jason Witten at the end of the Cowboys’ loss to the Lions on Sunday.
Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
Dez Bryant got in an argument with Jason Witten on the sideline after the Dallas Cowboys gave up a go-ahead touchdown to the Detroit Lions in the closing seconds of Sunday's game. The argument looked heated when it was caught on camera, but when pressed by ESPN, Bryant offered no apology. He said that his outburst was a product of his passion for the game and was meant to be positive.
“My passion is always positive,” Bryant said. “It’s always positive. It’s going to remain the same way. I’m not saying anything wrong. I’m not saying anything bad. It’s all positive. That’s just what it is.
“I’m the nicest person off the field. When I’m on the field, even when I look angry, it’s still all good passion. It’s all good passion. I feel like that’s what we need. I’m going to remain the same way. I feel like I love this game. I love it. In order to win, you’ve got to be passionate about this game. You have to be. You’ve got to let that dog come out and just put it all out there on the line.”
Bryant also appeared to get into a tiff with quarterback Tony Romo, yelling at the quarterback about not being targeted until the end of the first half. In fairness to Bryant, however, both Witten and Romo came to Bryant's defense, as did head coach Jason Garrett and owner/general manager Jerry Jones.
Witten said that he was trying to calm Bryant down to prepare for one last desperation attempt at winning the game:
“We have a great relationship with him. This is a close-knit group,” Witten said. “He has more passion than anyone I’ve ever played with. That’s a good thing to have. With 12 seconds left, we were all upset, but there was still time left. I tried to communicate that. There was more football to play. We were going to get the ball back, and the play we had drawn up, he was a big part of that play. We were trying to get him to calm down because we were going to try to get him the ball on that play.”
Bryant did his part in the loss, catching three passes for 72 yards and two touchdowns off six targets. He was greatly overshadowed by Calvin Johnson, however, who had 329 yards (!) and a touchdown off 14 receptions. Johnson was instrumental in helping the Lions cover 80 yards in 50 seconds to set up Matthew Stafford's game-winning 1-yard plunge into the end zone.
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