Dez Bryant Is Not Actually Living Under an Iron Fist According to Jerry Jones

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says he and the organization have not laid down any special set of rules for wide receiver Dez Bryant, and he doesn't understand where all this stuff is coming from. It was reported that Bryant, who has had several high profile off the field incidents, was given a midnight curfew, a no drinking and no strip club policy, and 24-hour-a-day personal security.

Jones was appearing on KRLD-FM today and said, 'I'm not so sure where the media has come with detail of this nature.' Good question. ESPN Dallas ran this story by Calvin Watkins updated on Monday at 8:05 am. It originally ran on Sunday and included this quote from Jones:

"Oh yeah, very much willing to do anything he can to help himself and help the team," Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones said of Bryant. "He's very open-minded and cooperative. He's doing the right things by his teammates and everybody is counting on him."

Unless something was taken completely out of context, it seems as if Jones knew what was being discussed when the story was originally being reported.

In fact, all original stories seem to link back to that ESPN Dallas story, which had another curious line, if in fact Jones doesn't know where this whole 'rules' business started:

Jerry Jones said the Cowboys have placed restrictions on other players previously and when asked if this is the strictest of rules for a player he said, "No this is (not) the strictest at all."

That's kind of odd that Jerry would say that over the weekend, reportedly, and then say this during his radio interview today:

I think any of this talk or any of these references to what he's going to be doing or what he is not going to be doing, in general, it's one that would say just let's conform to good behavior, the kind of behavior that the commissioner expects, that society expects and that anybody expects if you're going to get the opportunities you are.

Why would Jones be backtracking now? Oh, right. Placing these rules on Bryant could be a blatant violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. As ProFootballTalk points out, the Cowboys putting restrictions on how Bryant spends his free time isn't exactly allowable.

These are not the kinds of distractions the 'Boys need when they're trying to make a legitimate playoff run.