Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant knows a thing or two about dealing with the powers that be in the NCAA. As you probably remember, he was suspended before his junior season for lying to NCAA investigators about a lunch he had with Deion Sanders.
Considering his experiences, Bryant says he’ll be mad if Texas A&M quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel isn’t suspended over the autograph scandal that currently has NCAA investigators looking his way--but Bryant isn’t rooting for a suspension, either.
"Hell yeah, I’ll be mad," Bryant said, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I will be mad. But I don’t want him to get suspended. I will be mad more at the NCAA on how they do things. I just feel like it’s not fair. This is something I have no problem talking about because I feel like somebody needs to say something to him and let it be known how they treat people is not right."
Bryant went a step further, and said he wouldn’t be opposed to NCAA players being paid, an increasingly talked-about idea in the wake of the Manziel controversy, which started with accusations that Johnny Football received payment for signing a number of autographs.
"I feel like they should," Bryant said. "I feel like players in the NCAA should. Those fans are coming out to watch them and support them. When they’re in college, it’s different. You don’t get paid like the NFL get paid. I think what would be OK would be to have just a little bit of money in your pocket. It’s hard in college. You’ve got to get a job [in the offseason] if you can. You’ve got to practice. It’s just hard. Sometimes the training table is just not good enough."
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