Dez Bryant Keeping Quiet Until NFL Draft

Originally Published: Apr 20, 2010 7:6 PM CDT

Associated Press

EDITOR'S NOTE -- This is the third installment of a periodic diary-style story from Dez Bryant that will move before the NFL draft, which begins Thursday.

STILLWATER, Oklahoma -- Dez Bryant has nothing more to say. His chaotic path to the NFL has almost reached its end. By week's end and quite possibly by the end of the NFL draft's first round Thursday night, he'll know where his pro career will begin.

But until then, he's keeping quiet.

Nothing Bryant has said so far has swayed public opinion in his direction after a series of blunders that made experts question whether the player widely regarded as the best receiver in the draft should be the first one drafted. So the next time he talks will be after a team has made his NFL dream come true.

Through his representatives, Bryant committed to do a series of interviews with The Associated Press leading up to the draft. After delaying his latest interview while he was visiting with Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Denver, San Francisco and six other teams in a two-week span, he opted to remain silent until his draft party near Dallas on Thursday night.

"I think he wants to focus on what he does best and what he loves, and that's football," his agent, Eugene Parker, said. "He wanted to get ready to play football, because I think he believes that whatever opinions people have, they're going to have. He wanted to give them enough information so they could make an informed opinion. And if they choose not to take the information, I think at this point he's decided that's not going to be his problem."

Bryant was suspended for the final nine games of Oklahoma State's season for lying to an NCAA investigator about a meeting with former NFL cornerback Deion Sanders. And he has been criticized for missing team meetings, failing to bring the right shoes to his pro timing day and for working out with once-suspended NFL cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones.

But Bryant has insisted he's not the type of person who seeks out trouble.

OSU coach Mike Gundy stands up for his former standout, who caught 87 passes for 1,480 yards and 19 touchdowns and also returned two punts for scores in 2008.

"Dez has been given a little bit of a bad rap, but Dez is not a troublemaker. I mean, Dez has not been in trouble," Gundy said. "There's a difference with maybe being late for meetings and stuff and being a guy that's in trouble all the time. Dez has never been in trouble.

"Dez is just a guy that has to learn to fit into a system, and he'll be fine once he gets there."

Mock drafts project Bryant going anywhere from seventh overall to the Cleveland Browns to falling out of the first round. Broncos coach Josh McDaniels defended Bryant's character, bolstering the notion that Denver, which traded away star receiver Brandon Marshall last week, would take him with the No. 11 pick.

"There's a lot of talk about his history and things that are different. He is different from everybody else," Gundy said. "One thing he's always done, now, when he crosses those white lines, he'll compete and make plays. And I think Dez will be fine.

"He'll get an opportunity. Somebody's going to take him in the first round and from that point on, all he has to do is take care of his business, which I'm sure he will."

Receiver Justin Blackmon arrived at OSU one year behind Bryant and considered him a role model.

"He was a great leader, he was a hard worker and I basically went to compare myself to him working," Blackmon said. "So, that's how I saw it."

Gundy attributed the negativity surrounding Bryant to the fact that NFL teams are preparing to spend millions on him "and so they're going to do all the investigative work they can."

"Dez has a loving family, but he had some tough times back home. I think we have to keep in perspective the opportunities that we all have and what we have to lean on," Gundy said. "He's a little bit self-made. He's gotten to this point by working at what he loves to do most, which is play football, so you have to respect that aspect of it.

"And then, he has to make adjustments from this point on -- through the rest of his life -- in order to fit into society and play the role that he needs to play in order to have success in football."

Perhaps the past year has been exactly what Bryant needed as he prepares for the next stage in his life.

"I just feel like -- believe it or not -- I'm kind of happy because of the stuff I've been through because I feel like it has just matured me as a person in some ways," Bryant said in his last AP interview. "I'm probably not fully developed as a full man, but I've matured in a lot of ways. I know how to handle things a lot better."