When someone’s mother is singled out in front of the world publicly, as the ugliest controversy in sports goes viral, it’s an embarrassment to the mother and the individual himself.
This is exactly the awful predicament wide receiver Dez Bryant and his mother are dealing with, regarding the latest incident on what is specified as racial interrogation.
What turned into an ongoing saga, the Miami Dolphins were caught in the middle of all the balminess when Jeff Ireland, general manager of the Dolphins and a veteran NFL executive, didn’t think before speaking rudely.
He made an idiotic mistake weeks ago during a pre-draft interview session with Bryant, and stepped overboard when he asked a question that wasn’t football-related, but on a form of racism and stereotypical.
There is a time and place for finding out personal information, but there’s never a time and place to ask someone about their mother's rough lifestyle or family roots of living through poverty.
First of all, it’s no one’s business. Secondly, it’s not an important question that a prospect needs to be asked.
Given his mother’s hard times to survival, she never had a stable living, having to sell cocaine and hustle in the streets to provide at 15 years old when he was born.
So easily, it could have impelled Ireland to evaluate his family status with a maligning question during an interview in which he asked if Bryant’s mother was a prostitute.
Although we live in a free country, certain remarks are offensive and this one was certainly an insult to Bryant, the newest attraction to the Dallas Cowboys.
In a cruel world, Ireland is portrayed as the good guy, the innocent victim, but Bryant and his mother are demons in a crisis inflaming a derogatory mess and leaving the NFL in dismay. Why ask someone if their mother is selling her body?
He regrets ever asking an insensitive and repulsive query, a shocking statement that had many shaking their heads in anger. Any notion that it’s a disgrace or irresponsible to consider someone as a prostitute is absolute ignorance.
As always, he realizes his mistake drew much bleakness and now takes full responsibility for unwisely determining whether Bryant’s mother was a bad influence on his recent troubles at Oklahoma State as an explosive wideout.
It’s normal to worry about a player with baggage and issues that could be damaging to a rebuilding franchise. In some way, he worried about whether he’ll fit in and behave as a positive role model, but made matters worse.
To clear his name of guilt, he wisely called the Dallas Cowboys, who drafted Bryant with the 24th pick of the first round, and asked politely if he could apologize to him personally.
Sadly, he’s a victim of misconduct when Ireland was a manipulative idiot. For his brainless and disrespectful act, Ireland’s drivel was cruel and unnecessary. He had courtesy to call Bryant and apologize, remorseful of his wrongdoing.
But he has to make another phone call, to a distraught mother waiting for an apology after she was wrongly accused of prostituting. She’s bothered, furious and becoming impatient as Ireland still hasn’t called.
Because of his outrageous libel, she wants a sincere apology to resolve her name of defamation and humiliation. If he’s sympathetic, he’ll push the digits to give her a ring.
If he’s concerned about protecting his legacy or image, he’ll talk to her in a friendly and unforgivable conversation for amending iniquities and reconciling accounts.
So, has he called?
“No, he has not called.” Angela Bryant said on Monday morning in a telephone interview from Dallas. “I think he should have. Why wouldn’t you do that?”
At this moment, he’s acting with no class or dignity, heedless of Bryant’s mother feelings. Allegedly, this horrid episode is redirected at Dez. Since when did he become the suspect? There are normally two sides to a story, and in this case, there are two sides.
Bryant is unfairly and pathetically blamed as a criminal, entering the NFL on America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys. He must deal with the scrutiny and madness, even if none of the accusations are true.
Needless to say, his upbringing wasn’t smooth or pleasant, telling a reporter that his father was a pimp growing up.
If any of this is true, what does that make his mother? I know it might sound harsh, but it’s the truth, people. Either way, Ireland still owes Ms. Bryant an apology sooner than later.
Recently, a report uncovered late Monday that she was arrested for selling cocaine last year to a police informants. Once the SI.com story was released, Bryant responded that it was all a “lie.” Who knows what really happened.
What I do know is that he was suspended in 2009, when he lied to the NCAA after he was questioned about his relationship with Deion Sanders.
I’m not calling him a liar, but he gives me reason to wonder.
Eventually, the truth may surface, but Ireland still needs to have conversation with Bryant's mother.
“Yes, I am upset about it,” she said. “I am not pleased with it. I’ve heard how the question was supposed to have come about—that Dez supposedly said his father was a pimp—but I don’t believe that.
"I think the Dolphins have put that out there as their excuse. And I know if they keep after it like that, they will sound like a broken record. He was caught off guard by it. To ask that of any kid, that hurts.
“When they couldn’t find enough dirt on him, they went to that. It was almost like a scheme. They should never have put that kind of thing or question on him.
"Whatever reason they chose to do that, they are talking about my charges of 12 years ago and running with it. I’m not OK with it. But we are both going to be OK.”
Well, the truth shall be told, I guess.
All I have to say is Ireland needs to be apologetic. It starts by being a man.
