DALLAS — Wearing a dark sports jacket, a dark shirt and a somber expression, a man who once entered a courtroom for his own cocaine possession trial wearing a full-length mink arrived for a news conference at an Oak Lawn law firm Wednesday fully aware that his past still haunts him. That doesn’t mean what has happened to Michael Irvin in the last month has the appearance of being fair.
At the very least, it remains unexplained. The Cowboys’ Hall of Fame wide receiver, who turned 57 Sunday, has disappeared from the NFL Network and from ESPN’s First Take since the week of the Super Bowl following his dismissal from the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown after a late-evening encounter Feb. 5. Irvin has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Marriott in Collin County, but the cause for the suit and his removal from the hotel property remain unclear.
On Tuesday, his attorney Levi McCathern was, for the first time, allowed to see the hotel’s surveillance video. “I was not allowed to make a copy, I was not allowed to take a copy and I was not allowed to make a cellphone video,’’ McCathern said.
The attorney explained that the video shows Irvin conversing with a woman for about a minute and a half and that the two shake hands and he touches her elbow twice while talking to her. Witnesses, who appeared at the news conference via Zoom, said that Irvin’s interaction with the woman was quick and harmless. One witness was an Eagles fan who had never met Irvin before taking a picture with him outside the hotel. The other was from Australia and had never heard of him.
More than one month later, Irvin has not seen the video, does not know the name of the woman who made an accusation, nor has he been informed what the accusation consists of. That has sent Irvin to a dark place which he tried to explain Wednesday.
“In this great country, this takes me back to a time when a white woman would accuse a Black man of something. They would take a bunch of guys that were above the law, run into the barn, tie a rope around the man, drag him through the mud and hang him from the tree,’’ Irvin said.
“How can I defend myself if I don’t even know what I’m defending myself against? I couldn’t even tell you what she looks like. I don’t know. This just blows my mind that in 2023 we’re still dragging and hanging brothers by a tree, that we have no opportunity to defend. ... I don’t even know what I’m defending myself against.’’
Marriott has remained mostly silent since the incident took place and the lawsuit was filed, beyond petitioning to move the case from state to federal court and insisting that they do not own the Renaissance property involved in the dispute. There had been an expectation that Irvin’s attorneys might reveal the surveillance footage at the news conference, but while the court has asked for it to be presented, only the one shown to McCarthern on Tuesday, with Marriott’s attorneys present, has taken place.
“I still haven’t seen the tape,’’ Irvin said. “I want to know why I put my entire life on hold. If I did something wrong, I’ll pay the consequences. But if you did something wrong — you meaning Marriott — then they should suffer the consequences.’’
Irvin spoke briefly about the fan support he has received throughout his long professional career, mentioning those who stayed with him “through the peaks and certainly through the valleys.’’
It’s the valleys that have Irvin in a bind today. The charges and accusations have continued during his life as a football analyst, and it’s that mindset of “haven’t we been through this before” that makes Irvin a soft target. As he said during one of the two times he spoke Tuesday (there were no questions taken), “I know nobody wants to hear what I say. Certainly Marriott doesn’t want to hear what I have to say.’’
If there is more to what happened in Phoenix than a brief exchange and handshake in a hotel lobby, that will come out over time. Irvin insists there is nothing to any of this. Witnesses support him. His lawyers would like the public to be able to view the tape. But for now the hotel chain is mostly keeping everything under wraps.
You might question whether Irvin comparing his situation to Emmett Till’s or something equally horrific from that era is appropriate. While that’s fair, I’m also wondering this: If Peyton Manning or Troy Aikman had been accused of some indiscretion in a lobby without a presentation of any evidence, would their networks have taken the hotel’s side and abandoned them as quickly as Irvin’s employers chose to at the Super Bowl?
It’s Irvin’s Hall of Fame past that allows him to showcase his personality as a TV star most of the time. And he’s very good at what he does. But it’s the rest of his past that keeps the benefit of the doubt from ever arriving comfortably at his side.
