Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Jones shares blame for Irvin troubles

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Friday, August 11, 2000

Jones shares blame for Irvin troubles
Win at all costs philosophy was proved detrimental to wide receiver's behavior
By Jim Litke
Associated Press
He was always the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. What Michael Irvin still hasn't figured out is how easy he's made it for trouble to find him.
   His license plate reads "PLAYMAKER." He once showed up for a grand jury hearing in a mink coat and sunglasses. And the last time the cops busted up one of his get-togethers, the first thing Irvin asked was, "Do you know who I am?"
   Irvin's arrest Wednesday on a misdemeanor marijuana charge doesn't seem like much - he and a young woman were picked up inside an apartment by federal drug task force officers looking for someone else.
   More interesting is what Irvin said a few hours later, after he walked out of jail.
   "I really don't know what went on," he said.
   It's not the first time he has said that.
   In December 1996, five months after Irvin pleaded no contest to felony cocaine possession and was sentenced to four years' probation, a woman accused him of holding a gun to her head while one of his Dallas teammates raped her.
   The woman later recanted her story, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor perjury charge and served 90 days in jail. The night the story broke, when the TV cameras caught Irvin outside the Cowboys' Valley Ranch headquarters, he was adamant about his innocence then, too.
   "I don't even know what anybody is talking about," he said.
   There is a very real chance this latest episode will end the way the last one did, with Irvin cleared of wrongdoing.
   But he could lose a job he just picked up - working Sunday pregame shows on Fox Sports Net - and if the charges stick, Irvin could spend six months in jail. Had this happened five weeks earlier - Irvin's probation ended July 6 - he might have been looking at 20 years in the penitentiary.
   What scares one former Cowboy who knows something about trouble is that Irvin keeps missing the point in his repeated scrapes with the law. And Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, a former Dallas star whose career was cut short by drug problems, thinks the team and owner Jerry Jones share some of the responsibility.
   "When the organization knew it had a guy with a serious drug charge on their hands and four years of probation, we're talking about a great opportunity to help Michael. But Jerry Jones, in my opinion, never cared about Michael as a human being. They just wanted to get him back on the field and playing football."
   There is no denying the Cowboys team Irvin retired from last month was nothing like the team he joined in 1988, as Tom Landry's last first-round draft pick. It was the worst in the NFL, but one of the least troubled. The next year brought a new owner, new coach Jimmy Johnson, and new quarterback Troy Aikman. Running back Emmitt Smith arrived a year later. Together they turned the franchise around in record time.
   What came next was a familiar tale. The Cowboys had more trouble handling success than adversity. They won three Super Bowls by mid-decade and then, led by Irvin, they spent the rest of the 1990s celebrating them.
   Jones may not be as cold as Henderson portrays him. But the message Jones put out - whether dealing with rivals, his own hires, or his fellow owners - was win at all costs. Irvin really was in the wrong place at the wrong time, because it was the last thing he needed to hear.
   He was already being treated like a superstar in high school, and at the University of Miami, he found a football program almost as brash as he was. Once Irvin hit his stride with the Cowboys, he started believing he was bulletproof.
   That all changed last Oct. 10 in Philadelphia. Irvin caught a ball and awkwardly slammed his head into the hard turf of Veterans Stadium. He was temporarily paralyzed and warned that another blow to the head or neck could make the condition permanent.
   When Irvin said goodbye to the NFL, he had his family by his side and a Hall of Fame career almost certainly locked up. Now, he may need help to hang onto both. The debate over Lawrence Taylor's induction into Canton made character more of an issue than ever before. The forgiveness of his family might be harder won still.

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

[an error occurred while processing this directive]