Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant was handcuffed and held at gunpoint in front of his daughters after a road rage incident on Sunday in Texas.
Bryant, who retired from the NFL after the 2020 season, said in an interview with OutKick that the incident began after two men threatened him after driving recklessly.
The 37-year-old was subsequently cited for “Assault by Contact,” according to the OutKick report. Bryant was not arrested.
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Bryant claimed that the other men cut him off in traffic. The three men then reconvened outside of a restaurant in Southlake, Texas.
There, the situation escalated.
“He go to threatening me and basically saying, insinuating that he’ll shoot me or whatever,” Bryant told OutKick. The wide receiver confessed to responding with a threat of his own before knocking a phone out of the man’s hand.
Neither of the involved parties displayed a firearm during the dispute.
When police officers arrived on the scene, they ordered all three of the men onto the ground and trained handguns on them. Bryant’s girlfriend arrived at about that time with their two daughters in tow.
“I was really more so concerned about my children, looking at their dad, being on the ground with a gun pointed at me,” the Texas native said.
Bryant did not publicly report any injuries from the incident. He claimed that all three men were permitted to leave the scene after brief questioning from the responding officers.
The Oklahoma State product spent nine seasons in the NFL, including eight with the Dallas Cowboys after he was drafted with a first-round pick in 2010. Bryant ended his career with 537 receptions for 7,506 yards and 75 touchdowns.
His 73 receiving touchdowns with America’s Team rank first in franchise history, just above tight end Jason Witten.
Off-field concerns followed Bryant throughout his career, though. He settled a lawsuit out of court after claims that he acquired thousands of dollars worth of jewelry on credit while at Oklahoma State, according to multiple reports from 2011.
In 2012, Bryant was arrested after he was accused of hitting his mother. He was granted a “conditional dismissal” after agreeing to undergo anger management counseling.
But Bryant said in 2013 that he was “done with domestic abuse.”
“My reputation means everything to me,” he told OutKick this week before urging authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into Sunday’s incident. “Treat everybody fair. Treat everybody fair. Treat everybody with respect. Do your due diligence on what’s actually going on.”
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