The Dallas Cowboys have Dez Bryant heading towards free agency this offseason and as the sides have been working on a deal rumors have circulated about a video that may exist involving Bryant and some have speculated that contract talks have slowed because of this and this comes as Jerry Jones may consider using the franchise tag on Bryant as they try to sign DeMarco Murray.
The Cowboys came into the offseason with Bryant as the priority and ESPN.com reported that the team was "leaning" towards using the franchise tag on him. Ed Werder at ESPN reported that Bryant would likely skip OTA workouts and offseason activities if he was tagged and that came after Bryant made comments during the season saying he did not want to get the tag. Jerry Jones said to ESPN Dallas that he did not think Bryant would "pout" about getting tagged.
The franchise tag for wide receivers is going to be about $13 million for this season and that wouldn't be the worst thing for the Cowboys, as that would give them time to get a deal done. News reports about the video have started to filter out from Adam Schefter at ESPN and Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk, with both saying that they have had sources tell them a video exists. NFL Media released a story about a 2011 Wal-Mart incident that may have involved Bryant and the police report describes a woman being dragged across a parking lot.
The woman later told police that she was not assaulted and no one was arrested, but Bryant's cars were at the parking lot and he later showed up with the woman, who claimed she called him to come pick her up. The police say that they do not have video of any incident and while Wal-Mart may have it somewhere from security tapes, it's likely it will not come from there. Bryant took to social media to call out "BS" about what is going on and also talked about how he used to let people take advantage of him.
Reports have written some "ex-friends" of Bryant are trying to shop the video for money as a sort of extortion. Either way, this has added an interesting wrinkle to the contract talks and it comes after Bryant's long history of off the field issues. The Cowboys have tried to restrict what Bryant does away from the team and by all recent reports he has been a good citizen. But in the past he has had issues, including an incident with his mother and according to NFL.com, he had the police called to his home at least six times since 2011, although he was not charged for any of those calls.
According to NFL.com, the Cowboys previously offers Bryant a massive extension worth over $100 million, but the contract had just $20 million in guaranteed money. Bryant is coming in after a monster season with 16 touchdowns, 88 receptions and 1320 yards and that was his third straight season with at least 12 TDs. Bryant had back to back 90-catch, 1200 yard seasons in 2012-13 and now he is looking to get paid.