As far as demonstrating how to handle the media well, the whole back-and-forth between Roy Williams and teammate Dez Bryant has been pretty much a clinic I think. I’ve been paying some attention to the “drama” and it sure seemed like the press were doing their damnedest to stir something up between them.
First their was a training camp “incident” where Bryant refused to carry Williams’ pads back to the locker room. It’s a rookie thing, apparently by Bryant never got the memo. The media made tried the “Rookie Disses Veteran He Supposed to Replace”. Now, Bryant gets to pay an outrageous dinner bill at a steakhouse, and the media is figuring it’s revenge- “Veteran Gets Even for Being Dissed in Training Camp.”
The only problem, for the media anyway, is that Wiliams has stated all along that there’s no animosity between the two. Ditto for Bryant. Williams has even called the media out to a degree, telling them essentially “I know what you’re doing and it won’t work, there’s no ‘there’ there.” For his part, Bryant has played the same tune, even after the dinner. In fact, he was upset that veterans felt a need to apologize because of media coverage over the whole thing.
Really sounds like someone trying to rip up the locker room, huh?
The fact is, they are right. There haven’t been any misinterpreted quotes or anything the media could fan-the-flames with. I think this means that we have to take these two guys at their word. They don’t hate each other and they aren’t looking to start locker room problems.
Now let’s see if the media is capable of dropping a faux story or not.