Dez Bryant and Patrick Mahomes? Cowboys Comeback Try Will Get Boost from Chiefs Super Bowl MVP
FRISCO - Dez Bryant's exclusive interview with CowboysSI.com in which he expressed his desire to return to the NFL via his former team, the Dallas Cowboys, was conducted on the league "Championship Game Weekend,'' which of course featured the eventual Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Soon, the plan is for the comeback bid by Bryant, the Cowboys' all-time leader in receiving TDs, to be aided by the star of the Chiefs, Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes.
"Yes,'' Bryant told CowboysSI.com, with a nod to the East Texas roots he (from Lufkin) shares with Mahomes (from Whitehouse). "We're going to get together later in the spring.''
And then a social-media confirmation from Mahomes himself ...
After a two-year layoff, Bryant, 31, has a desire to play ... and more specifically, to play for the only team he's ever known, the Cowboys.
“I’m where I need to be (physically) right now,” Bryant told CowboysSI.com. “I’m more serious than ever. ... I’m 100-percent hungry for the right situation.''
And now? Cowboys COO Stephen Jones is acknowledging that Dez hasn't just broached the idea with us; he's broached the idea directly with the Cowboys.
“He has texted me that he would like to come back,” Jones said Thursday via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “We have nothing but great respect for Dez and what he accomplished here. Certainly, as we look forward into the future we look at all opportunities and all potential players that could maybe help us out.”
Dez on Friday morning confirmed his reach-out to Jones.
In our one-on-one interview with the comeback-minded Bryant, he makes it clear he continues to “work in the lab,” as he likes to describe his training regimen. He told us his workouts (at DFW's Michael Johnson Performance gym and also at the Baylor, White & Scott Hospital gym, which is in "The Star'' neighborhood but not inside Cowboys HQ) are often conducted alongside a group of potential 2020 NFL draftees.
"I'm surprising myself and also trying to do some teaching,'' he said.
We can report that the Cowboys suddenly seem to be at least slightly more intrigued following Bryant's text. (Let's all it a "never-say-never'' approach, for now.) They'll want to know where he is mentally and physically, of course, as Bryant has passed on some opportunities to return to the NFL since his April 2018 release from Dallas and then his ensuing November injury (a torn Achilles) sustained just two days after signing with New Orleans.
His time away from football has allowed the franchise leader in TD catches (Bryant has 73) to pursue his business interests and to father a brood than now includes four children. Zayne is 12, Dez Jr. Is 9 (“going on 21, says proud Dad), Isabella Rose is 5 and Legend Mac-Rose is 1.
But he said his "passion is big enough'' for both family and football.
And his workouts are suddenly big enough to have room for Patrick Mahomes.
