OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Dez Bryant announced he again tested negative Thursday, two days after a positive test for COVID-19 ruled him out just before a game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Bryant tested positive just a half-hour before Tuesday’s kickoff against his former team after his tests that morning were inconclusive. Bryant, who has yet to be placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list by the Ravens, on Thursday said on Twitter that it could have been a false positive.
“I tested negative back to back for covid and I’m not excited about it,” Bryant posted.
I tested negative back to back for covid and I’m not excited about it
— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) December 10, 2020
Ravens coach John Harbaugh spoke to reporters Thursday before Bryant’s post on Twitter.
“He’s doing as well as can be expected,” Harbaugh said about Bryant. “He’s a guy that cares. He sacrificed a lot to leave home and leave family behind. He’s a family man and has kids. I think he’s pretty hurt by it. He’s not mad at anybody. But just the circumstances, I think he’s a little stunned by it, surprised that it came up. I think he’s trying to work his way through it right now.”
If Bryant doesn’t have to quarantine for 10 days, he would be available for Monday night’s game at the Cleveland Browns.
On Tuesday, Bryant’s test from that morning came back inconclusive around 7 p.m., about an hour before the Ravens-Cowboys game began. The test was re-run and still came back inconclusive. In the meantime, Bryant took a rapid PCR test, which came back positive around 7:30 p.m. He was then ruled out of the game with an illness.
About 10 minutes after the positive test, Bryant was adamant that it wasn’t correct.
“The crazy thing is I have the same damn routine,” Bryant wrote on Twitter on Tuesday night. “This s— do not make sense to me.”
Bryant became just the second Pro Bowl wide receiver to return to the NFL after missing two full seasons. He began on the practice squad before getting signed to the active roster on Nov. 28. In three games, Bryant has four catches for 28 yards.
Tuesday night marked Bryant’s much-anticipated first game against the Cowboys. He was a three-time Pro Bowl player for Dallas from 2010 to 2017, setting a franchise record with 73 touchdown catches.
After he tested positive, Bryant wrote on Twitter that he wasn’t going to play again this season before subsequently acknowledging he would return.
“I could never speak for another person, because the Twitter stuff and all that, that’s something you’d have to ask him,” Harbaugh said. “I don’t have any answers to that. But that’s what we would be planning for, certainly. He’s certainly an option. He’s a part of our team. And I was really happy with his progress, how he was practicing.
“I don’t think it’s hard to understand why it would be such a tough thing emotionally, especially with where he’s at in his career. I think we could all put ourselves in his shoes on that, for sure. I’m very sympathetic toward that and understanding of it. Ultimately, people make decisions for themselves and that’s what they have to do.”