Dez Bryant was once one of the National Football League’s best modern wide receivers, but his career was cut short by all the injuries he got on the field and some of the actions he took off the field.
However, Bryant was not going to let his time with professional sports stop and has since focused on giving current players the support they need from the sidelines.
He has gone from wide receiver to successful businessman seemingly overnight and his fans couldn’t be prouder of his turn-around.
What Is Dez Bryant’s Net Worth?
Dez Bryant currently has a net worth of $4 Million.
With his new business and innovative investments, Bryant is hoping to earn more money than he earned during his time in the National Football League.
During his days as a wide receiver, Bryant played for the Dallas Cowboys and later joined the Baltimore Ravens.
Although Bryant would eventually go on to be a multimillionaire, his childhood was far from ideal.
Dez Bryant was born to his mother Angela Bryant when she was only 15 years old.
She would go on to have multiple other children.
In order to afford to feed all of her children, Angela Bryant sold drugs and was arrested for drug dealing by the time Dez Bryant was only eight years old.
She spent 18 months in jail, but things would never be stable for young Bryant and his siblings.
Rather than being able to grow up in his own home, Bryant was forced to bounce between houses throughout all of his teenage years.
When graduated from Lufkin high school in Texas, he had lived with eight different families.
The childhood that Bryant had wasn’t a good foundation for his mental health, which would eventually come to a head in 2014.
To escape the troubles of his home life as a child, Bryant put all of his focus into becoming the best football player he could be.
During his senior year of high school in 2007, Dez Bryant became the best wide receiver in the state of Texas.
Thanks to his dedication to football, Bryant was able to choose from a variety of colleges to attend on scholarship.
The National Football League watched Bryant’s college career closely, eagerly awaiting him to join one of their teams.
Becoming A Dallas Cowboy
Dez Bryant may have made a name for himself in high school, but he proved to the public that his name was worth knowing during his time with Oklahoma State University.
After earning All-American honors, the Dallas Cowboys knew that they needed Bryant on their team.
During the 2010 National Football League draft, the Cowboys made a trade with the New England Patriots so they could choose Bryant.
The team believed that Dez Bryant would be their next star with the track record he had already achieved in high school and college.
He was signed to the Cowboys for a five-year contract worth $12.05 million, in which he’d make $8.4 million guaranteed.
Bryant was assigned number 88 on the Cowboys, which was originally the number of Dallas Cowboys legends Drew Pearson and Michael Irvin.
By October of 2010, Dez Bryant had already caught his first touchdown in the National Football League after catching a 31-yard pass from Tony Romo.
By the end of his first season, Bryant had 45 receptions for 561 yards and six receiving touchdowns.
Dez Bryant would go on to play 113 games with the Dallas Cowboys where he’d have 531 passes for 7,459 yards.
He was also able to break a Dallas Cowboys franchise record with 73 touchdown catches by 2017.
The vice president of the Dallas Cowboys, Stephen Jones, described Dez Bryant as fiery and passionate.
He also contributed a lot of the team’s victories to Bryant’s devotion to football and claimed Bryant was one of the greatest wide receivers that the team has ever had.
Dez Bryant’s skill as a wide receiver made him the best in the National Football League from 2012 until 2014, allowing him to appear in three different Pro Bowls.
However, trouble would soon arise for Bryant once more.
Why The Dallas Cowboys Released Bryant
Dez Bryant may have been incredibly successful with the Dallas Cowboys, but that doesn’t mean that things between Bryant and the team were as fruitful.
The problems began with Bryant’s constant tardiness.
However, the problems began to spread onto the field when he received multiple injuries in 2012.
During that season, Bryant was constantly injuring himself in new ways and decided to just start playing through them.
In December of that year, Bryant had to be pulled from the field after a serious back injury in the fourth quarter of his final game of the year.
Bryant wasn’t able to play as much as the Cowboys had originally hoped, yet they were still paying him the same amount of money.
Dez Bryant was cut from the team for financial reasons, although Bryant would go on to call a couple of his teammates “snakes” for booting him out.
Bryant didn’t want to take a pay cut, and the Dallas Cowboys no longer wanted to pay the same amount of money for the services he was able to provide.
Despite all the injuries that Bryant had sustained while working for the Dallas Cowboys, he still felt that he deserved the salary he was being given.
However, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones just didn’t see it the same way.
Jones appreciated the work that Dez Bryant had done for the team but felt it was time for them to part ways as businessmen.
However, Bryant was quick to call the staffing team out for playing favorites among the players.
Moving To The Baltimore Ravens
After Dez Bryant’s release from the Dallas Cowboys, he was a free agent for only seven months before the New Orleans Saints decided to snatch up the wide receiver for themselves.
Only two days after signing with his new team, Bryant tore his Achilles tendon.
It can take a year or more for a torn Achilles tendon to heal, and it is impossible to run when it’s injured or not healed properly.
Although the Saints wanted to bring Bryant back by 2019, he was simply never brought back.
Bryant was determined that he would not end his career on such a low note when he felt that he could still play.
He publicly expressed his desire to play for another team, but nobody called him in 2019.
In 2020, the wide receiver got a call from the Baltimore Ravens, who were hoping to add him to their practice squad.
Due to COVID-19 protocols, the signing had to wait until Baltimore’s seventh week, and he began practicing by Week 8.
By Week 9, the Baltimore Ravens had Dez Bryant on as an active member of their team, and he was able to play against the Indianapolis Colts.
Although no one was denying that Bryant was still skilled and healthy enough to be a helpful member of the team, Ravens fans were confused about the odd choice.
The Ravens used Dez Bryant sparingly during his one-year contract with them, which allowed Bryant to stay with the professional league.
He appreciated his time spent with the Baltimore Ravens.
Bryant would dedicate each game he played with the Ravens to his newborn daughter.
Over the course of the six games he played with the team, Bryant had six receptions for 47 yards and scored two touchdowns.
Bryant is proud to have been a Baltimore Raven.
Struggling With His Mental Health
Dez Bryant has had to endure some incredibly difficult life events ever since he was a child, which is where part of his mental health problems have stemmed from.
This release from the Dallas Cowboys and the National Football League were also incredibly difficult for him.
Bryant had devoted his life to football ever since he was a child and to lose his dream career due to repeated injury was soul-crushing.
Soon after his release from his hometown team, Bryant announced on social media that he was suffering from depression and anxiety.
His anxiety had gotten to the point that he was having repeated panic attacks, followed by an unbearable depression.
The depression was so bad that Bryant turned down a guaranteed $13 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens shortly after his release.
During this time, Bryant also turned down a $5 million deal with the Cleveland Browns.
Although he was spotted at one of their training camps, Bryant didn’t feel that he could mentally handle the pressure of being on another team.
By September of 2018, Bryant was starting to get back in shape and work on his mental health.
Bryant would never forget the way he felt during this time and later found a passion for helping other professional athletes get through the struggles of mental health as well.
After the death of Vincent Jackson, Bryant felt moved to begin mentoring younger players and help them deal with the constant scrutiny that professional athletes are under.
He also wanted to help them avoid using substances as a replacement for real moral support.
Bryant claims that “God gave [him] a gift” to allow him to identify with other players who may be feeling the heavy weight of depression.
He wants fans and players to take depression more seriously.
Creating Personal Corner
Now that Dez Bryant’s career on the football field has slowed down, he has more time to devote to his side businesses.
Bryant’s new business Personal Corner has become more than a side hustle, and Bryant believes it will make him and other professional athletes millions.
Personal Corner is looking to advance the Chainlink technology in order to make NFTs more interactable.
Professional players are able to build their own NFTs that can drastically change according to a variety of statistics from a professional season.
The number of touchdowns, interceptions, tackles, and sacks can all change the NFT.
If a player reaches certain milestones, the NFT will be able to upgrade itself thanks to Chainlink Sports data feeds.
When these upgrades are achieved, the NFT holder will be entered in raffles and allowed entrance to certain competitions on the platform.
The holders will be able to win memorabilia from raffles that have been signed by the player whose NFT they own.
Devoted fans who hold onto NTF for a long time or from an early stage will also have a chance of earning tickets to games “in recognition of their support.”
Bryant wants to use Personal Corner to help professional athletes create their personal brand through the use of NFTs.
Those who wish to purchase one of Dez Bryant’s NFTs will be paying at least 0.18 ETH or $482.69.
Higher tiers will cost consumers anywhere from $2,359.80 to $8,044.77.
By purchasing the top tier of NFTs, holders will be given three-year access to Dez Bryant’s birthday event in New York City on November 3rd and a discount on Personal Corner goods.
Only 2,000 to 3,000 top-tier tokens are being made for each athlete on Personal Corner.
Investing In OxeFit
Dez Bryant and Dak Prescott were close during their time on the Dallas Cowboys.
The athletes were excited to unite once again when they both decided to invest in a Texas-based startup that was creating Artificial Intelligence-powered exercise equipment.
OxeFit is located in Plano, Texas, and has attracted the attention of many technology-savvy football stars.
Alongside Bryant and Prescott, OxeFit also has support from National Football League players such as Jason Witten, Blake Jarwin, and Demaryius Thomas.
The fitness company has managed to raise $12.5 million and intends to release its first collection of fitness equipment soon.
OxeFit wants to use artificial intelligence to track “performance and muscle metrics through motion, providing advanced coaching directly through the platform,” according to the company.
While this direct training will allow some athletes to push themselves further and locate weak spots, Dak Prescott was more excited about the opportunity that this new technology provides to rehabbing athletes and their healthcare teams.
Those who have supported the upcoming brand are firm believers in the results that OxeFit’s products provide and believe that this company will change the future of how training during rehabilitation works.
Their completely virtual approach also allows them to be safe even during the height of the pandemic.
His Brand Endorsements
Like every great National Football League star, Dez Bryant has earned some of his fortune from the brand sponsorships he was given during his time as one of the best wide receivers in the professional league.
In 2016, Bryant was able to have a dream come true when he was given a brand endorsement with the Jordan Brand.
As a child, there was no way he could ever have afforded such an expensive shoe despite loving the style since he was a child.
When he became one of the many athletes given the opportunity to get his own cleats made by the brand and go on the famous shopping spree at its headquarters, Dez Bryant was nearly moved to tears and promised that he’d never take the opportunity lightly.
Thanks to the collaboration between Nike and Bryant, they were able to start a new trend among professional athletes to have vibrant cleats.
Some of his favorite sneakers from the Jordan Brand are the ones they created with New York Giants wideout Victor Cruz.
That same year, Dez Bryant was given the opportunity to work with BodyArmor.
As their spokesperson, Bryant attended product launches and worked alongside Skylar Diggins of the Dallas Wings to spread awareness of the brand as they went from being a Houston hometown sports drink to a national seller.
BodyArmor believed that Bryant was the perfect representative for their brand thanks to his dedication to fitness and the way he inspired everyone from his teammates to the weekend warriors around the country.
As part of their partnership agreement, Bryant became a shareholder in the company.
At the time, BodyArmor had fewer than 1,000 investors.
Dez Bryant was introduced to the brand when they sent him samples of their drinks after hearing he was suffering from dehydration.
Struggling With Legal Problems
Dez Bryant has been able to clean up his act since first entering the National Football League.
When he entered the league, he had been turned down by many teams for his “undeveloped life skills.”
It wouldn’t take Bryant long to find trouble off the field, starting with a “major disturbance” at PF Chang’s where he was banned for his sagging pants and cursing at a security guard.
Bryant was given a ticket for parking in the fire lane when police were called.
Only a month later, Bryant would be sued by two different jewelers because he didn’t pay them for his custom jewelry.
He had refused to pay the $575,000 that he owed them.
Dez Bryant got into a fight with Lil’ Wayne in January of 2012 at the famous nightclub South Beach Club LIV.
He wasn’t arrested for the fight, but he was detained and questioned by the Miami police department.
In July of 2012, Bryant had to turn himself into police after slapping his mother.
The wide receiver nearly had to pay a $4,000 fine and could have had to spend a year in jail, which would have ended his career.
Luckily, Dez Bryant was able to straighten himself out since the early years of his career.
With his new future as a businessman ahead of him, Bryant has been able to keep himself busy in a productive manner.
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