Rob Ryan Tells The Story Of How Dez Bryant Once Punked A Young Cowboys' DB So Hard In Practice That He Ruined His Career

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Before his injuries slowed him down Dez Bryant was a bad man on the football field. According to former Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Bryant was so good at one point in his career that he may have ruined a young defensive back’s career because of how badly he got punked in practice by Dez.

Via Jon Marchota/Undisputed

Look, this was my next door neighbor in training camp. He’s all football. This guy loves football. He is so passionate about it. I say he is the genuine article. He’s a wild horse. That’s what he is. Believe me, I made the mistake of putting a first-year corner on him the first day of practice and Dez Bryant punked him, knocked him down so bad he had a terrible career. He’s still playing but he’s not any good and it’s because Dez punked him. That was the beginning of the end. That was the dumbest thing I ever did. But I’ll tell you what, I love Dez Bryant and I believe in him. History has shown, great receivers can come back.”

Of course the Internet did it’s thing and deduced that Ryan was probably talking about former LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne.

Via USA Today FTW

Claiborne is the only one who played in 2017. He was also the only player drafted by the Cowboys. The rest were undrafted free agents, so it’s unlikely that (a) they’d be running with the first-team defense on the opening day of camp and (b) that Ryan would consider ruining the career of an undrafted free agent “the dumbest thing [he] ever did.”