The NFL Network said that former Dallas Cowboys star receiver Michael Irvin won’t appear as an NFL Network analyst ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl following reports that a woman complained of an incident that allegedly took place over the past weekend.
The NFL Media’s vice president of communications, Alex Riethmiller, told multiple news outlets Wednesday that “Michael Irvin will not be a part of NFL Network’s Super Bowl LVII week coverage.”
NFL Media said Irvin “will not be a part of NFL Network’s Super Bowl LVII week coverage” without specifying the details of the woman’s complaint over an incident that allegedly happened Sunday.
Irvin reacted to the news during an interview with several media outlets, denying any wrongdoing.
The three-time Super Bowl champion added: “We shook hands. Then, I left ... that’s all I know.”
Irvin said he couldn’t remember what they spoke about but said that he didn’t act in an inappropriate manner or have inappropriate contact with the woman.
“I don’t really recall that conversation, to tell you the truth,” Irvin said. “We were out drinking. It was just a friendly conversation. ‘What’s up?’ I don’t even know ... I am totally perplexed.”
The Glendale Police Department and other officials told the news outlet that they have no knowledge of any incident involving Irvin. It’s not clear if a police report was filed.
Irvin also told Dallas’s 105.3 The Fan Wednesday morning that he didn’t remember the interaction after he had “a few drinks.”
“So they moved my hotel, and I said, ‘What’s going on, guys? What’s happening? Why are we moving hotels?’” he recalled.
Irvin then added: “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.”
“That’s why I’m kind of hiding to wait and see how everything comes down,” Irvin also remarked. “It was a minute meeting somewhere in the lobby. I don’t even remember it really because I had a few drinks, to tell you the truth.”
Irvin, meanwhile, asserted that there “absolutely was no sexual wrongdoing,” he told the Morning News.
“What law did I break?” Irvin said. “There was definitely nothing physical … 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, who won his three Super Bowls during the Dallas Cowboys’ heyday in the 1990s, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007. Since retiring from playing, he’s long appeared as an analyst for ESPN and NFL Network.
Super Bowl LVII will be held on Sunday, Feb. 12, starting at 6:30 p.m. ET. The Eagles will play the Kansas City Chiefs.
