Jerry Jones: Cowboys have not created off-the-field rules for Dez Bryant
By Jon Machota / Special Contributor
9:17 am on August 28, 2012
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones says the team has not created off-the-field rules for wide receiver Dez Bryant.
During a weekly radio appearance Tuesday, Jones declined to provide any detail on guidelines that have been set for Bryant. The only player rules Jones mentioned were the ones put in place by the National Football League and the Dallas Cowboys.
“We’ve given no detail. I’m not so sure where the media has come up with detail of this nature,” Jones told the New School show on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM]. “Fundamentally, Dez does, and I’m convinced, want to do many things that give him the opportunity to get on track the way he needs to, both on and off the field.
“I think any of this talk or any of these references to what he is going to be doing or what he is not going to be doing, I think in general, it’s one that would say just let’s conform to good behavior, the kind of behavior that the commissioner expects, that society expects and that anybody expects if you’re going to get the opportunities you are. He does believe he has a great opportunity.
“We’re fully supportive of him, his family, his mother and we want to do anything in that direction that we can. As far as specifics of rules, I think just rules that let him concentrate on what he’s doing on the field and let him do his work and not have the distractions of not doing it right off the field.”
The reported off-the-field guidelines include restrictions on alcohol consumption, a curfew and an assigned multi-member security team. But Jones refused to speak about any of those details.
“I’m not going to discuss any of the rules because that implies that there’s a certain set of rules and I don’t know that that’s correct either,” Jones said. “Really, just by the nature of it, it’s not one you would discuss. We have rules on behavior in the NFL. We have rules on behavior at the Cowboys as well. I’m not so sure there’s been any new rule created here.”
What are the consequences if Bryant doesn’t follow NFL standards?
“Well, I think it’s pretty clear,” Jones said. “We’ve got behavior rules in the NFL that have been made real clear by the commissioner’s office. And I think it’s real clear that if you don’t abide by the rules of society, what happens. All of those are answers that any adult deals with every day.”
Despite Bryant’s multiple incidents away from football, which include being issued a criminal trespass warning at a Dallas mall, multiple lawsuits for failure to repay loans and being detained by police in Miami for an altercation at a night club, Jones has maintained that there have been no surprises with Bryant since the club drafted him in 2009.
And Bryant’s July arrest for allegedly assaulting his mother hasn’t changed Jones’ response to questions about second-guessing his first-round selection.
“There have been absolutely no surprises for us with Dez,” Jones said Tuesday. “There are no surprises here.”
When further questioned about that response, Jones refused to answer any more questions on the topic.
