NFL Hall of Fame coach John Madden has said that the Dallas Cowboys should have spoken to Dez Bryant following his display of poor sportsmanship last weekend.

Bryant stormed to the locker room with over a minute left of Sunday's 37-36 defeat to the Green Bay Packers, fuming with the way his side had thrown the game away.

However Madden stated that there is no excuse for what Bryant did, claiming the Cowboys should be harder on him, even if he is a key player.

He told SiriusXM NFL Radio: "There's no excuse for it. Because he's such a good player, we're all going to make excuses for him. What he did was wrong. I'd have told him to get his butt back there.

"There are some things that you let go, and then when things go poorly, you can't pull them back. Dez Bryant has been in and out of the doghouse and I don't know if they ever got him straight. They were a little lax on him when he first came in as a rookie. Maybe they let him do things they shouldn't have, things that they have to live with now."

Following the loss, the Cowboys' post-season hopes now hang in the balance as they sit in second spot in the NFC East.