IRVING, Texas – A day after the locker-room incident involving Dez Bryant and the media, the Cowboys responded, with head coach Jason Garrett calling it a "teaching opportunity" for both the wide receiver and his teammates.
Owner Jerry Jones, who admits to have a close relationship with Bryant, said his tolerance level for Dez and some of his action is obviously higher than most.
"And not that (my reaction) is the right thing to be, maybe you can be too close to something some times," Jones said. "But because I am close, because I've spent a lot of time with him, I understand his responses."
Bryant was visibly upset with a reporter about an editorial story written last week and confronted him. He then was even more upset with another media member who tweeted out a version of the altercation.
"It's a great teaching opportunity for us as coaches and a great learning opportunity for Dez and really for our whole football team," said Garrett, who met with both Bryant and the team about the incident. "We didn't handle that situation the right way. Dez didn't handle that situation the right way. We have to understand the world that we live in, and we've tried to make that abundantly clear to him and to our football team. Again, we're going to use this as an opportunity to get better and handle those situations going forward."
It's not the first time Garrett has met with players this season about their actions in the locker room and/or on social media. In this case, Garrett actually made a rare appearance in the locker room towards the end of Bryant's rant and even escorted the wide receiver into the hallway to remove himself from the situation.
"It's our job as coaches to try to shape a mindset and a mentality and to shape behavior both on and off the football field, and we'll continue to do that," Garrett said. "I believe that 100 percent of our guys do things the right way about 98 percent of the time. What we need to do as coaches is to make sure they understand what the expectations are for their conduct and behavior on the field, their conduct and behavior off the field and when they don't do things the right way, we're going to let them know. We're going to get them back and hold them to that standard. That's what the case was here. It's certainly behind us. It was addressed directly with the individual involved – Dez – and also with our football team, and we're going forward."
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