Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant recently took a COVID-19 test. Several NFL players have tested positive for the virus, but the former first-round pick was not among this group. He revealed on Tuesday that his test came back negative, and he is in full health.
“Got tested for covid.. negative [praying hands emoji],” Bryant tweeted on Tuesday. Several fans responded by expressing happiness about his health, while others took a different approach. They asked why he was getting a test “for no reason.” Some fans had fun with the news and used the tweet as an opportunity to make jokes about a 2014 playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. Bryant appeared to catch a fourth-down pass from Tony Romo to set-up an easy touchdown, but the referees ruled it an incompletion. This decision was controversial at the time and led to several arguments in the following years.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Bryant’s negative test results surfaced on Twitter one day after multiple players from the Cowboys and the Texans tested positive for the coronavirus. The respective teams did not release the identities of these players due to privacy laws. However, someone leaked the news that running back Ezekiel Elliott was among this group. His agent, Rocky Arceneaux, later confirmed this to NFL insider Ian Rapoport.
While Cowboys fans expressed concern about Elliott’s health following the news, the running back just made his frustration clear. He sent out several tweets about the story and criticized the unknown person that leaked his information. One of these tweets simply read “HIPAA??” in reference to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that is designed to keep patient information private.
“My agent only confirmed. The story was already written. Reporters had been called my agent all morning,” Elliott later tweeted. Several NFL fans proclaimed that Arceneaux was the one that leaked the information to reporters, but Elliott shut this conversation down. He repeated that his agent did not break the news.
The Dallas Cowboys did not confirm or deny Elliott’s positive test. The team simply released a statement that said, “Due to federal and local privacy laws, we are unable to provide information regarding the personal health of any of our employees.” The Texans released a similar statement in order to maintain the privacy of their respective players.
Bryant isn’t currently on an NFL roster, and he wanted to provide some insight for his Twitter followers. He revealed that he took part in a test, as well as the results. Some fans questioned his decision-making, but many others expressed relief about the negative test.
