Former Cowboys receiver and three-time Super Bowl champion Michael Irvin has been pulled off NFL Network’s airwaves for the rest of this week’s coverage from Arizona.
The action, first reported by Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News, comes after a woman lodged a complaint against the 56-year-old Hall of Famer in Glendale, where Super Bowl LVII is set to take place on Sunday.
“Michael Irvin will not be a part of NFL Network’s Super Bowl LVII week coverage,” said an NFL Media spokesperson in a statement.
The incident in question allegedly occurred Sunday, after Irvin returned to his hotel after an evening out with onetime Cowboys safety Michael Brooks.
As Irvin recalled Wednesday to 105.3 The Fan, network representatives approached him the following evening, after his appearances during Super Bowl Opening Night coverage, and asked about the previous night.
“I don’t remember it, but I guess when I came in, they asked, ‘Well, what did you do [last night]?’ I said, ‘I went straight to the room,” Irvin told the station.
“But I guess I had met somebody in the lobby, talked to somebody in the lobby for about a minute, and then I went to my room. And after I got off the air [the next day], they said, ‘Come on, we’ve got to move you [to another] hotel.'”
Although Irvin maintained that he went directly to his room, he says the network claims that video shows something different.
“And then they showed it on camera, that I did talk to somebody. I talked to this girl for about a minute. I don’t know; they didn’t show it to me. They told me. And I didn’t see it,” Irvin said. “I don’t know what she looks like or anything. But that’s why they moved me. Because I guess the girl said I said something to her within that minute that we talked.”
NFL Network has not commented on the exact nature of the woman’s complaint or elaborated on what Irvin supposedly said to her.
“I don’t really recall that conversation, to tell you the truth,” Irvin said, per the DMN. “We were out drinking. It was just a friendly conversation: ‘What’s up?’ I don’t even know. … I am totally perplexed.”
Irvin admits that he cannot remember some of the details of the evening, saying, “I had a few drinks, to tell you the truth.”
But he is adamant that nothing happened beyond the lobby encounter.
“There was definitely nothing physical,” he told the paper by phone. “That’s honestly all that happened. Nobody was in my room. It was a 45-second conversation in the lobby: a handshake and we left. … I don’t know. I don’t know what this is, and it’s running me crazy.”
Irvin said he had not seen the woman before or since that brief conversation.
Neither Glendale police nor other local authorities were aware of any incident involving the Cowboys legend, according the report.
Some reports state that he has already been sent home from Arizona.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]
[mm-video type=video id=01grqaz85rzv10nxnfkd playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01grqaz85rzv10nxnfkd/01grqaz85rzv10nxnfkd-af9c269f45eeaf637002b41a9098d0e0.jpg]