After a short-lived mentor-protege relationship, Deion Sanders cut off contact with Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant some time ago. However, he’s still concerned for the second-year Oklahoma State product, who ran into some off-field trouble earlier this offseason.
Talking to an Atlanta-area radio station, Sanders said that his concern for Bryant is nothing compared to how the team feels--at least, how he thinks the team feels--about the highly talented young pass catcher.
"Hell, yeah," Sanders said, per Fox Sports Southwest. "Everybody is. I think the Dallas Cowboys are more concerned than I am because I'm not losing any sleep by any means. It's hard to talk to a person when they have millions, man, because there is so much noise in their life. Everybody around them is employed and they have 'yes men.' You got to start hiring a 'no man.' Somebody who is going to tell you no and somebody who is going to tell you the truth, and a lot of these guys don't.”
Sanders continued that his break-up with Bryant came as the result of issues that might not be widely known by the public--and which, Sanders believes, could negatively impact the community work with which Sanders is heavily involved.
"When it comes to him . . . I had to cut my umbilical cord with him because (there are) a lot of things people do not know about,” Sanders said. “I'm trying to open schools and trying to get these kids prepared for the future and I can't have that on my record, (people) saying that, 'How am I going to send my kids to your school and this is what you are turning out over here?' No, I am not turning that out over there. I have nothing to do with that, so I had to cut that cord because you can't keep doing the same old things that you've always done. You are going to get the same old things you've always got, so that's why I had to separate myself.
"I love him. I see him from time-to-time. I pray for him, but as a unit we had to separate."
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