this is also the same dude that was telling

of having the Dez Bryant incriminating video
http://deadspin.com/whatever-happened-to-that-dez-bryant-video-1688516700
It's impossible to prove a negative, but with each passing day, it seems more and more likely that the Dez Bryant video—the subject, over the last two weeks, of rumors so intense that they were, in themselves,
semi-legitimate news—simply doesn't exist.
By now, we know what appears to have set all the rumors alight: a minor, four-year-old incident in which Bryant may not have even been involved. But even without an actual video, the story as it played out was almost as juicy and much more instructive, a perfect illustration of the NFL media swallowing its own tail.
Word of the video first surfaced around Feb. 20, when Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio appeared on a
Dallas radio show. After the hosts brought up the rumor, Florio claimed that "all of the major insiders" knew about the tape, and that it would have a "Ray Rice-type of an impact" if it were released. In the calculus of rumors, that was exactly the thing to say to make the reward worth the risk of chasing an unsubstantiated story.
The following week, some jamoke on Twitter claiming to be a music producer came out with a series of claims that the Sun Times network (a content mill carrying the brand of a semi-respectable big-city newspaper) decided to run with. "Jaywan Inc." claimed that Bryant's former friends were shopping the video around and extorting the receiver.
Screenshots of the Dez Bryant were sent to all media outlets including us to let the bidding begin. Obviously, we're not TMZ. No interest.
— Jaywan Inc. (@JaywanInc) February 25, 2015
So his ex-friends decided it was time for a pay day. However, noone is going to have possession of that tape until they pay. Whoever it is.
— Jaywan Inc. (@JaywanInc) February 25, 2015
The timing of Rapaport's reporting is instructive. It was back in November—the same month that Florio claimed to begin looking into things—that Rapaport revealed a
series of minor incidents involving Bryant. Rapaport, though, initially failed to request police documents from neighboring Lancaster, where the 2011 Walmart parking-lot incident took place. Rapaport received that documentation on Feb. 17, just three days before Florio's cryptic radio appearance turned a nothing incident report into a massive wildfire. Rapaport wouldn't put those flames out for another six days, by which time it was way too late.
On Monday, the Cowboys—whose COO Stephen Jones denied any existence of a video from the beginning, and who had reportedly known about the Walmart incident "for some time"—
gave Bryant the franchise tag. For all the conspiracy theories about how the rumors had been put out there to ding Bryant's value, he's guaranteed to remain a Cowboy and to make at least $12.8 million.
Freeman
had this to say on Schefter's and ESPN's role in the mess:
The NFL official who knew of ESPN's involvement said ESPN's pursuit of the video was extensive. The official also said that ESPN decided not to run a story because it didn't think a four-year-old story—minus the video—was fair to Bryant. Thus, for all the grief ESPN sometimes takes, it handled this case, according to the official, with great professionalism.
But Schefter's dithering was the fuel this conflagration needed. If he had shut it down during his radio appearance, or given more context, or even just never mentioned it in the first place, it would never have gotten the play it did. Instead Schefter played it cagey, stating that the story was real, and that he had it. By never officially reporting out the Walmart incident, but revealing that he knew more than he was telling—and more than anyone listening—he was able to take the high road while Bryant was dragged down by implications.
The NFL's free-agency period starts March 10, by which time this rumor will have faded away, largely forgotten. (It already basically has with the
LeSean McCoy trade.) But it muscled its way into a few news cycles, and isn't that what matters? Football is a year-round media sport now, even if the stories have to eat themselves to survive.