Does a "Ray Rice-like" Dez Bryant video really exist?

It's a question that we asked late last month after a rumor about an alleged tape started. But so far, no tape has surfaced. And for the most part, all of the speculation surrounding its existence has died down, leading many people to believe that it's not actually real.

SportsBusiness Journal reporter Daniel Kaplan just put the tape back in the news, though, by revealing that Walmart recently told him that they don't have any video footage of the Cowboys wide receiver doing anything scandalous. NFL Media discovered that Bryant was reportedly involved in some kind of "unknown disturbance" in a Walmart parking lot in Lancaster, Texas back in 2011. But when Kaplan reached out to Walmart to see if they had a video from that incident, they said that they don't.

Here's what Kaplan is reporting:

For AM Crowd: If there is a Dez Bryant video, Wal-Mart told me yesterday it doesn't have it and never did. Spoke to Wal-Mart about the much reported, over the last 2 weeks, altercation on July 11, 2011 in which the police responded to a 6 AM call saying a woman had been dragged out of a car in a Lancaster, Texas Wal- Mart parking lot. The police report, just made public last week, said the car is registered to Bryant, and he arrived shortly after the police, with the woman. The woman said she had an argument with a man other than Bryant and no charges ensued, according to the police report.

Last week, talk there was a videotape of the incident emerged on talk radio and and in print.

So i called Wal-Mart to see if the company had this much rumored video tape.

Wal-Mart director of national media relations, Brian Nick, said because no charges had been filed, the company would not have pulled the security footage at the time and created a videotape of the incident.

No crime had occurred, he said, so the Lancaster Police did not request the footage from the company’s security system.

And it would be too late now to do so, he added. The company’s security protocol eliminates footage after a certain period of time, he said, and that time has passed.

This doesn't preclude the existence of a video tape, just that Wal-Mart's official statement is no videotape is or has been in the possession of the shopping giant.

So that's where we stand. There isn't a tape, and unless some big development takes place, it doesn't sound like there will be a tape anytime soon. Stay tuned.

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[via Barstool Sports]