Michael Irvin to miss appearance on First Take following hotel complaint, Super Bowl coverage exit
Only more questions have swirled since a report on Wednesday revealed that former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin had been pulled from Super Bowl LVII coverage on NFL Network. Irvin was involved with the team coverage on Monday but an incident in a hotel lobby in Arizona on Sunday night eventually resulted in the network pulling him off of the coverage for the rest of the week.
Now, Irvin is also set to miss an appearance on First Take on Friday, which airs on ESPN – not NFL Network.
Details surrounding the incident that resulted in the reprimand from the broadcast networks have been vague. Also, so far, only Irvin’s side of the story has come out. Besides a statement from an NFL Network spokesman confirming the Hall of Famer’s apparent suspension, the networks have been mum about the reasoning behind their decisions.
“Michael Irvin will not be part of the NFL Network’s Super Bowl LVII week coverage,” NFL Network spokesman Alex Reithmiller said in the statement.
This comes following an unspecified complaint from a woman who was staying at the same hotel as the former receiver in Arizona, according to the report from the New York Post.
Even several days after the incident, very little has leaked out about what transpired between the two parties. However, Irvin says the hotel has the interaction on tape. He claims the only physical interaction they had was a handshake, but he couldn’t recount what was said.
Irvin shares his story regarding hotel complaint
Irvin discussed the matter in an interview on 105.3 the Fan on Wednesday, but his recollection of the incident is allegedly hazy due to a “few drinks.”
“When I came into the hotel, they asked what I did and I said, ‘I just went straight to the room,’” Irvin said. “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 then after I got up there, they said they had to move me in the hotel. I said, ‘Move me in the hotel for what?’”
“So they moved my hotel, and I said, ‘What’s going on, guys? What’s happening? Why are we moving hotels?’” Irvin continued.
“They said, ‘Well, last night you walked in, you talked to somebody.’ I said, ‘I didn’t talk to anybody. I went straight to the room.’ 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 what — they didn’t show it to me. They told it to me. I didn’t see it. But that’s why they moved me, because I guess the girl said I said something to her within that minute that we talked, and so they moved me.”
Although Irvin will miss his Friday First Take appearance, he had a very memorable one on Monday. He launched into a fiery rant about the potential consequences if the Cowboys move on from Dak Prescott.