With Aaron Hernandez facing murder charges, and scouts and executives wondering how his violent tendencies slipped under the radar, the question of proper background checks prior to the NFL Draft have now come up.
Former Cowboys scout Bryan Broaddus joined G-Bag Nation on 105.3 FM The Fan last week and talked about athletes that had personal baggage and might have been too dangerous to draft according to The Dallas Morning News.
Broaddus told The Fan that Cowboys star wide receiver Dez Bryant “had the worst background of any draftee he had ever seen.”
“The worst I had ever seen of a background is the kid Dez Bryant. When you look at what he went through and then you’re talking about these players, and it’s hard for them to get away from these people in their lives because these people have been with them when they were nothing, when they were nobodies. All of a sudden you’re thinking ok, I’m going to turn my back on my three buddies here. I have to change, but they ain’t changing. I think if Dez Bryant was playing in St. Louis or Baltimore or Seattle, I think the fact that his family is here with him, I think that was a really hard adjustment for him. Hopefully from what we’ve seen, he’s managing that well. That’s the important thing.”
Bryant was raised by a single mother who was often absent, and who spent 18 months in prison for selling crack cocaine. He grew up impoverished and without direction, which explains his perceived “lack of life skills” and ignorance in certain situations.
Broaddus was asked if he felt the now quiet Bryant has fully changed.
“On Dez…that’s the thing as a personnel guy. You wake up. You don’t sleep at night. And when you wake up, you’re thinking did he go off the reservation today. That was something that we had to deal with. You deal with ok what happened, check TMZ, nothing happened, ok, we’re good for a day. You’re constantly worrying about players because they get put in terrible situations, sometimes by their own doing.”