Dallas wide receiver is having a break out month in the NFL, and as I’ve reported several times recently, seems to have had the light finally go on for him.
Bryant is now dominating loudly on the field, and going about his business quietly off of it.
That’s a change from the drama that followed him early this season with altercations with his mom, being placed on franchise house arrest, and a myriad of other situations.
Bryant for his part has taken the bulk of the responsibility for that, and during a candid interview with ESPN Dallas, admitted he knows he needed to make changes in his life.
“Let me tell you something, my relationship with my mom is great,” said Bryant, who has 15 catches for 232 yards and two touchdowns during the Cowboys’ two-game winning streak. “Even after the fact, it’s great. I don’t want to get into it much, but when it happened in our eyes, it was overblown.
“I love my mom. My mom loves me. Everything is great between us.”
Bryant answered honestly about the structure and quote on quote franchise house arrest he was placed on, and says he can appreciate discipline and structure he was lacking early in his life.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but people brought up differently see different things, been in different things — having two parents, having no parents,” said Bryant, the doting father of sons Zayne, 5, and Dez Jr., 2. “It’s different. I just feel like it’s been a learning process for me my whole life, and I’m just getting to it.
“I got real responsibilities I feel like I’m handling the right way. I’m enjoying my life the way I should have been enjoying it a long time ago.”
Bryant’s most loyal supporter Jerry Jones, again feels strongly that Dez is moving in the right direction.
“In general, I feel that Dez is maturing everywhere,” Jones said. “Now that’s not to say that he won’t go out there and run the wrong route. We don’t want him running the wrong route off the field.
“The point is, without trying to be cute, Dez is improving. But the risk is here that he’s on the field in the glaring spotlight for the Cowboys and off the field for the Cowboys. So I’m reluctant — we all are — to say, ‘Boy, Dez is doing good.’ Dez is doing better.”
Bryant again admits the change has been slow, but he is changing.
“We focus on small things, it will eventually turn into big things,” Bryant said. “Small, positive things turn into big, positive things. As long as I keep doing the right things, all the things that happen are positive things.”