Accusation casts shadow on Irvin’s sincerity

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. | Michael Irvin may have hustled me Thursday afternoon. But I really don’t know. I don’t think he did. I hope he didn’t.

About six hours before news broke that a woman filed a civil suit accusing Irvin, a former Dallas Cowboys great, of rape, he wowed me with a provocative, intelligent, mature 40-minute conversation inside the Super Bowl media center.

I wrote a column about our conversation. Thankfully, my editors canned the column late Thursday night when the Miami Herald released its story about the 3-year-old rape allegation at the center of the civil suit filed Friday.

The decision to pull the column is not an opinion about Irvin’s guilt or innocence. It’s a reflection of my mental conflict about the sincerity of my conversation with Irvin.

Irvin and his attorneys had to know the story and civil suit were coming. The woman, listed as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit, appears to have purposely planned her attack on Irvin to coincide with Super Bowl hoopla.

She’s had close to three years to file a civil suit. Police and prosecutors said her original criminal rape allegation — a claim that came two full weeks after the alleged July 4, 2007 rape — lacked the necessary evidence to pursue. It’s also being reported that Irvin’s accuser previously asked Irvin, an NFL Hall of Famer, for $1 million to drop the case.

With thousands of sports reporters in town and Irvin here to broadcast his ESPN Dallas FM radio show, “Jane Doe” and her attorney apparently alerted the Herald she’d file her suit on Friday.

Irvin grew up in Fort Lauderdale, starred at the University of Miami and still maintains a large public presence in the Miami area. Given his history of misconduct as a Cowboy and public-relations disasters as a television broadcaster, Irvin is extremely vulnerable to allegations of criminal misbehavior.

Within hours of the Herald report, ESPN fired Irvin. So far, the NFL Network, which also employs Irvin, has said Irvin will keep his job.
Me? I don’t know what to think. Was Irvin on his absolute best behavior Thursday because he knew the Herald story and civil suit were coming?

Before I speculate, let me provide you a little background on my dealings with Irvin.

I’ve long been a critic of Irvin’s television work. When he worked for ESPN — at the same time that I did — Irvin’s shtick really bothered me. I thought he was too flamboyant, a stereotypical caricature of the irresponsible black athlete. When police busted Irvin with a drug pipe in his car, I began calling Irvin the “Pipemaker,” a play off his self-given nickname “The Playmaker.”

Irvin was aware of all this, though he never complained to me. ESPN TV and Irvin eventually parted company. During the 2008 NFL season I caught Irvin doing a radio broadcast of an NFL game. He was terrific — charismatic, insightful, articulate and passionate. He was the broadcaster I wanted him to be when he was on ESPN. I wrote a few words of praise about Irvin in a column I do for Foxsports.com.

A few months later, Irvin invited me on his Dallas radio show. He couldn’t have been any more polite and professional. He told me that he understood my job and that I had a right to express my opinion about his work.

Thursday was the first time I’d seen Irvin since being on his radio show. It was the first time we’d ever had a chance to really talk. I was blown away by his intelligence and passion.

He sounded like a mix of Harry Edwards, Jim Brown and Billy Graham. The loud-talking, all-style/little-substance trash talker had transformed himself into an extremely thoughtful person, someone with an important message for young professional athletes and the men who supervise them.

“There’s so much to be gained from process,” Irvin told me and two Miami radio hosts. “Professional athletics doesn’t have time for process. Athletes are given wealth instantly. We live in a society that used to prepare meals in a process and put them in the oven to bake and now we put things in a microwave and eat right away. We’re into instant gratification. We’ve lost the process. We’ve lost patience.”

I’m not doing Irvin’s message justice. He spoke eloquently and at length. I scribbled notes as fast as I could. I needed a tape recorder. His point was that athletes, particularly athletes from dysfunctional, broken homes, struggle when they’re handed instant wealth and fame but haven’t been provided years of training on how to handle wealth and fame.

He acknowledged that was his problem when he was a Dallas Cowboy. The allure of sex and drugs swept him up in his youth. And now at age 43, he finally has an understanding of who he is and what his purpose in life is.

“See, our problem as men is we find our worth in our women,” Irvin said Thursday. “That’s not right. Your worth is in the work you do. Your work is your purpose in this life. When you find your worth in women, you spend all your time trying to please this woman rather than pleasing God.”

Irvin said he found his purpose in his two sons, age 12 and 11. He said he lives in fear of his sons punching his name into Google and reading negative stories from his wild days. He says raising his sons has caused him to become more self-aware and self-reflective.

He talked extensively about a book, “The Edison Gene: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child,” that he said helped him understand himself, his boys and other athletes.

Irvin won me over. I was impressed and thrilled that he’d evolved so dramatically. He gave me his e-mail address and cell number. I promised I’d stay in touch. I tried to contact him Friday afternoon to find out whether our conversation was genuine. I didn’t hear back. I hope it wasn’t all a hustle. I don’t think it was.

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(kansascity.com)