Skip to main content

Cowboys, Dez Bryant catch most unexpected stray imaginable after Yankees-Rays

Posted on July 13, 2024 - 9:52 am by

The Dallas Cowboys are the most prominent sports team in the United States and a result, they are often entered into conversations they have no business being in. Just a few weeks ago Jerry Jones became a topic of criticism after Bronny James was drafted to the Los Angeles Lakers. That’s just how it is.

Dallas’ run of being hit with unexpected shots has now extended past the NBA and into the MLB. With absolutely nothing going on in the NFL world in early July, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays still managed to make the Cowboys a part of the conversation.

With runners on first and third and two outs, Gleybor Torres hit a short pop fly into shallow center field. Second baseman Jose Caballero ranged out to make the catch and then dropped the ball while celebrating shortly after.

The Yankees challenged the call on the field and if overturned, would have tied the game at five. However, replay officials confirmed the drop was on the transfer, giving the Rays a 5-4 win. That led to Rays closer Peter Fairbanks looping in the Cowboys, saying that unlike Dez Bryant, Caballero caught the ball.

Cowboys and Dez Bryant catch unexpected stray after Yankees-Rays

It makes sense that Fairbanks would evoke the Cowboys considering he is from Wisconsin. The ill-fated no-catch call that he is referencing is obviously the controversial play from the 2014 NFC Divisional Round game against the Green Bay Packers where Bryant was robbed of a touchdown catch.



Bryant did not have the same fortune that Caballero had. He too was awarded the catch in the initial ruling before the call got overturned via replay. Three years later, the NFL changed the catch rules and in today’s game, Bryant’s catch would have indeed been a catch.

The consequences of this July baseball game between the Rays and Yankees is astronomically lower than the consequences of the NFC Divisional Round. Had this been Game 7 of the ALDS then maybe MLB would have looked at the play with the same magnifying glass the NFL looked at the Bryant play with.

But alas, the Rays benefitted from a controversial catch call while the Cowboys didn’t nearly a decade ago. And as long as people keep bringing it up, we are going to keep being salty about it.