Q&A With Class of 2007 Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL

Michael Irvin has made his share of mistakes. And as a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys, those mistakes were greatly magnified. I could never fully embrace Michael during his playing days because while I enjoyed and appreciated his play on-the-field, I could not understand his reckless behavior off it. While making 750 career receptions for 11,904 yards and 65 TDs, and setting NFL records and being named to the league’s All-Decade Team of the 1990s, Michael made terrible choices in his personal life that will live with him forever. His slate will unfortunately never be wiped clean by his fellow man. People cannot so easily forgive and forget. But the person I see is a man who has admitted his wrongdoings and feels regret for his actions. He said, “I will continue to live and try to do the right things … I don’t regret my career on the football field, but at 41-years-old, I regret the mistakes I made off the football field.” Really, what more can you ask from him?

I think a lot of people want to nag Michael about the negative things. Sadly, negative stories sell. And so does dredging up a troubled past, over and over again. But at this time in his life, in this brilliant Hall of Fame moment, it’s a celebration of all the good things about Michael Irvin. And you don’t need to look far to find them. Just a few days before I pack my bags for Canton, I spoke with a very real, very candid, and very sincere Michael Irvin on a national conference call and asked him the following questions:

DAVID: When you step up to the podium Saturday, what will you be thinking about? Will you be able to reflect on your career at that moment?

MICHAEL: Well, that’s an interesting question because I’m looking to see how I handle it all when I step to the podium. There are so many things that go through my mind at this time, but to actually step to the podium (pause) ‑‑ it’s something that I really can’t even imagine what’s going to be on my mind. I’m trying to piece it together, ok? What will I be thinking about? How will I handle this? How can I deliver what I want to say? That actual moment, if you’re asking me what the actual moment is going to be like, I’m waiting on that myself. I’ve heard from people about what it’s like, but hearing things and experiencing them are two different things. I’m looking forward to taking it all in. I’m a bit afraid, but I’m anxious, also.

DAVID: Has continuing to stay in football through broadcasting kind of dulled the negative effects of retirement?

MICHAEL: Certainly. But also ‑‑ and this I will talk about Saturday ‑‑ it also gives me a different perspective on this game — how great of a game this really is. And that’s it’s not just our (players) game. Other people love the game like we love it. You get on the football field and you think, “I’m putting in the time and we’re working hard as football players and this is a game we love and that’s why I played it since I was five-years-old and this is how I identify myself.” But, being an analyst and getting an opportunity to visit and be around the fans, you better believe that I have a whole new perspective of this game, because I’ve come face-to-face with people that love the game like I love it, and they’ve never played one down.

DAVID: Do you still have the itch to play?

MICHAEL: No, no, no. I still have it in my mind, but my body says no. I go out and play basketball now and maybe a little flag football with my boys, little kids and everything. I can see some things, but I can’t do anything anywhere near like what I used to. So I love being around it. As a matter of fact, when we were traveling last year with ESPN, we would go down on the field and I would watch the games. These balls were flying by me. Guys coming to hit each other, and I was like, “God, did I play this?” (laughing) You know, because you forget when you get away from it how fast this game really is. And being back on that football field is a whole different thing.

DAVID: What do you miss most about playing?

MICHAEL: I miss the same thing everyone misses when they walk away from the game. The camaraderie. It’s a game that’s more than a game. The locker rooms, the closeness, the common goal. All of those things that cross over all barriers. It’s just that, “Hey, we are one. We are a family.” I miss that. Gameday and the yell from the crowds and all of that is fun, but it’s really those things behind the scenes that I really miss. And you really don’t feel connected to it any longer when you leave the game.

DAVID: What did football teach you about life?

MICHAEL: Many life lessons. Many. Think about the whole structure of it. Each week you have a game. What does that mean? Each week I get a new opportunity. Regardless of how last week went, we can make it better right now. Regardless of how things may have gone against you, you can fix it right now. It teaches you to get back up. You’ve got to have battles. You’ve got to lose battles and fight through the losses, and football teaches you that. Jimmy Johnson’s favorite quote ‑‑ and I say it all the time when I’m talking to people ‑‑ “Each day you get better or worse. There is so such thing as staying the same.” You either make a choice to get better or make a choice to get worse. And that’s the truth. Each day you get an opportunity to get better or get worse. Which of them are you choosing to do? There are so many lessons. The famous head football coaches, whatever they are teaching you on the football field, trust me, you can apply it in life. The great ones, they do that. That’s why they’re so successful.

DAVID: If, as Coach Madden says, the busts come to life inside the Hall of Fame at night after everyone has left the building and talk to each other — if there was one bust in the Hall you could talk to, what player would it be and what would you ask him?

MICHAEL: I would imagine since you’re asking me about the bust, the first person that I’m going to ever want to talk to is my quarterback (Troy Aikman). But since I can talk to him all the time, maybe my bust goes and say to him, “We talk all the time. Let me go ask this other guy something.” There is no player — no player — that I admire more than my own quarterback. Period. Bar none. Don’t tell me or try to convince me about anything else. Don’t say anything to me about it. There is nobody I admire more than my own quarterback. Now, if you asked me of the guys that I played with, things like that, I absolutely loved growing up watching guys like Kellen Winslow. I watched that game he played against Miami. I was a man, and I’ve always been all-man. But after that game, I wanted to ask him to marry me. (laughing) I loved him. I was like, that’s how I would like to play. He left everything on the football field, exhausted, dead, and he came back on. And for some reason, that, to me, to have the ability to give all you have and leave it all on the field where they’re carrying you off after you caught the first down, you have to rest for the second down ‑‑ and the team doesn’t move the ball and then you’ve got to get back on the field and get another big third down and they have to carry you off again. That’s a player’s dream right there. I’d ask him how he did that.