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Saturday, June 7, 1997
Michael Irvin annoys many
By Ron Reid
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA - Michael Irvin, the recalcitrant Cowboys wide
receiver, skipped a team minicamp in April, played no-show to
another minicamp last week, has asked the team's owner to trade
him when he knows that can't happen and, as might be expected,
is now feeling the backlash from teammates who supported him last
season.
The trade is unworkable because it would stick Cowboys owner
Jerry Jones with a $2.7 million salary-cap bill, from Irvin's
original 1995 signing bonus. Jones, of course, is usually the
man who sticks it to someone else.
That Irvin has annoyed his Dallas teammates is blatantly obvious.
Quarterback Troy Aikman, the only Cowboy who attended a court
session last summer when Irvin was being tried for cocaine possession,
put it bluntly:
"He won't be traded, just like I won't be traded and Emmitt
(Smith) won't get traded. ... Whether or not we want to be, it's
not going to happen. So it comes down to whether Michael wants
to play for us or not. I hope it comes to conclusion soon, so
we can get going. If he wants to play, we want him to play here
and get started on that. If he doesn't want to play, I guess we
want to know that, too, so we can start moving in another direction.
"I think the world of Michael," Aikman added. "But
at the same time, enough is enough. If he's not going to be here,
we need to address that. Not having him for five games (when Irvin
was serving an NFL suspension for drug abuse in 1996) was a huge
blow to this football team.
"This football team needs to know if we need to go after
other people. There's a lot riding on what Michael Irvin's going
to do. I don't think it's fair to other guys out here practicing
to go through camp, not knowing what the future of this team is,
or how competitive we're going to be, because of one guy who is
failing to choose exactly what he's going to do."
Smith seconded that opinion.
"Whatever decision is going to be made, it needs to be
made in the next six weeks," the running back said. "We
want to go into training camp with a clear head. We don't have
to worry about whether we have a certain player or not."
That certain player is scheduled to make $2.492 million this
season.
(c) 1997, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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