When Nihar Janga won the National Spelling Bee last month, he celebrated on stage by mimicking the touchdown celebration of his favorite football player, Dez Bryant.
Bryant noticed that and invited Janga to attend practice with the Cowboys this week. After hanging out with Janga, Bryant said he was impressed with the young man’s work ethic
“That little kid made my day. Extremely smart. Outstanding. You can tell he’s an extremely hard worker. That’s all he talked about, how he practiced, how him and his mom just sat down and looked up all those words out of the dictionary and studied them. It just shows you how great he is,” Bryant said.
The kind of hard work it takes to become a great speller is slightly different from the kind of hard work it takes to become a great football player, but Bryant recognizes a great competitor when he sees one, in any field.