Interviewing for a job can be hard sometimes, just ask wide receiver Dez Bryant who just joined the NFL ranks as the Dallas Cowboy’s first round pick in the 2010 draft (24th overall).
The athletic standout from Oklahoma State University has faced a great deal of media scrutiny that started when his season last year with OSU was cut short after it was revealed he had lied about talking with NFL veteran and ESPN analyst Deion Sanders. Since that time sports analysts and critics have been quick to judge Bryant and terms like “character” and “maturity” were tossed about constantly when discussing where he might be drafted.
While interviewing with Yahoo’s Michael Silver Bryant talked about the struggles of dealing with the judgmentalism he thought unfounded, including having to sit through a brutal interview with an NFL executive later revealed to be Jeff Ireland of the Miami Dolphins:
“They asked me if my mom’s a prostitute,” Bryant says, an account that was confirmed by Wells [Bryant’s advisor David Wells], who attended the meeting. “No, my mom is not a prostitute. I got mad – really mad – but I didn’t show it. I got a lot of questions like that: Does she still do drugs? I sat and answered all of them.”
Bryant’s mother, Angela, had him when she was 15 and conceived his younger sister and brother within the next three years. She reportedly sold drugs, and she served a prison term during Dez’s childhood; at various times he lived with relatives and family friends. Dez and Angela are very close, and she will be with him at Wells’ house for a festive draft party Thursday evening.
The Miami Dolphins’ Jeff Ireland (Photo: NFL Photos/Getty Images)
After admitting he was the executive Bryant was referring to Jeff Ireland and the Miami Dolphins issued an official apology in a statement today:
“My job is to find out as much information as possible about a player that I’m considering drafting. Sometimes that leads to asking in-depth questions. Having said that, I talked to Dez Bryant and told him I used poor judgment in one of the questions I asked him. I certainly meant no disrespect and apologized to him.”
Top Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
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