Baltimore Ravens veteran wide receiver Dez Bryant announced that he tested positive for COVID-10 just a half hour prior to kickoff of Tuesday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys, and was pulled from competing in the game.
“Tell me why they pull me from warming up so I can go get tested,” Bryant said on Twitter. “… I tested positive for Covid.
“The crazy thing is i have the same damn routine. … this s— do not make sense to me.”
According to the league, Bryant’s polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test Tuesday morning was inconclusive, as was the rerun of the test. However, he results came back on Tuesday evening because the lab is located in Maryland. The subsequent point-of-contact PCR test at the stadium was positive, and per NFL protocol, Bryant was effectively removed from the game after he took the field for pre-game warmup drills.
“We were looking around for him, then he told us. It was like, we’re just going to have to pull the game for him; we’ve got to win that game for him, because we know how much it meant to him,” Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson said, according to ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. “He’s been talking about it for a minute now since he’s been here. So, I don’t like what happened, but it is what it is. We got the victory for him. I’m feeling for him, though, because I know this is a game he wanted to be in.”
Bryant, 32, was set to play the Cowboys for the first time since he was released by the Cowboys over two years ago, and said it was going to be “an exciting moment” to take the field against his former team.
