Dolphins GM hopes to meet with Dallas' rookie WR Dez Bryant to apologize in person about their controversial pre-draft interview.
Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland plans to meet with Cowboys WR Dez Bryant before both team’s preseason finale on Thursday, hoping to bring closure to the controversial interview he had with the rookie wideout in the offseason.
Ireland has re-visited the Byrant issue in light of the upcoming Dallas game and decided he’d like to find Bryant and speak with him if he gets a chance. According to Miami Herald‘s Armando Salguero, Ireland wants to “try to make sure Bryant is OK with everything and perhaps repeat in person what he said during a phone conversation with Bryant following their pre-draft incident.”
Miami’s GM since 2008, Ireland found himself stooped in controversy after interviewing the immensely talented, but troublesome Oklahoma State star before this year’s NFL Draft. During the course of the interview, Bryant revealed that his father was a pimp, to which Ireland responded by asking if Bryant’s mother, who had a prior arrest on drug charges, was a prostitute. Bryant angrily dismissed the question and Ireland later called the rookie and apologized.
“My job is to find out as much information as possible about a player that I’m considering drafting,” Ireland said in the statement following the incident. “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.”
Bryant himself seems more or less pass the issue. “I’m pretty sure if I was to see him on the field, I would shake his hand, shake coach Sparano’s hand,” he told Dallas-area reporters two weeks ago. “Just a lot of misunderstanding in that situation. Everything is fine.”
The Dolphins trip to Dallas will also be a homecoming for Sparano, the Cowboys’ assistant coach/offensive line coach from 2003-2007, and Exec. VP of Football Operations Bill Parcells, the Cowboys head coach from 2003-2006. TE Anthony Fasano, FB Lusaka Polite, and C Joe Berger are also former Cowboys.