Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Dez Bryant tested positive for coronavirus and was taken off the field right before their game against the Dallas Cowboys began on Tuesday. Despite many fans confused regarding the level of safety for the game, it kicked off without any delay.
David Samson sits down on his podcast, "Nothing Personal with David Samson" to discuss what happened and why Bryant had the reaction he had.
The NFL didn't want to ruin a Tuesday game, which is already an abnormal time to play, Samson explains, so the game went on
"We are a go for launch folks," the league said, with a translation from Samson.
After Bryant learned he was not going to have the opportunity to face off against his former team he took to Twitter to express the rollercoaster of emotions he was going through.
"Dez Bryant loses his mind. Literally loses his mind," the podcast host said.
No. 88 started tweeting about how he is done, is quitting for the rest of the season and he "can't deal with this."
Samson then started thinking of the reasons Dez could be done.
- "I don't want to die. He doesn't want to get sick. He doesn't want to go to the hospital."
- "He knew very well that he was not going to perform the way he wanted to perform. He didn't feel great even though he was asymptomatic, maybe there was something going on ... so he said, 'This is a perfect excuse, I'm not gonna play.' I don't think it's that."
- "He looked across at the Cowboys and he had such anguish and angst and anxiety over playing the Cowboys that he said you know what I'm done."
Samson continued, further thinking through why Bryant was so quick to say he quit.
"Then I started thinking, 'That couldn't have been it. What it must be is that Dez Bryant fell prey to what so many of us do by violating the 30 minute rule," the podcast host said.
The 30 minute rule is: you do not make any decisions within 30 minutes of an emotional event.
"I'm going to give him the benefit of that doubt, because I believe Dez Bryant will come back and that he'll get off the COVID list," Samson concludes, adding that many people are fast to react with something they do not mean in the long run.
Bryant did end up changing his mind, rescinding his statement that he was going to quit.
