Thursday, July 25, 1996

Irvin Suspended for Five Games

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The other shoe dropped, and it wasn't nearly as bad as the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys knew it could have been.

The NFL handed Michael Irvin a five-game suspension after the wide receiver's no contest plea to cocaine possession.

"We were surprised to a certain degree because we had heard it might be eight games, so I guess five just fell right into the slot," Cowboys personnel director Larry Lacewell said.

The Cowboys couldn't win without Emmitt Smith. Now the question is can they survive until October without Irvin.

"Any time you lose a great football player, you're going to struggle, but this team has a knack of overcoming adversity," Lacewell said.

The five-game suspension will cost Irvin more than $500,000 - he makes $102,647 a game - and force the man who caught 111 passes last year to sit out games against the Chicago Bears, New York Giants, Indianapolis Colts, Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles.

Smith got into a contract fight with owner Jerry Jones several years ago and sat out two games which the Cowboys lost. But they've never been without Irvin for a prolonged period.

"It's definitely going to hurt," Smith said of Irvin's suspension, which was announced Wednesday.
"But we'll find a way to hang on until Mike gets back. We'll use it as a rallying point. We're always battling some distraction."

Quarterback Troy Aikman said: "Michael certainly will be missed. He's one of the best in the league. We'll just have to do the best we can until he gets back."

Irvin can practice with the team and even play in exhibition games, but was not expected to report to training camp anytime soon.

Jones said he spoke with Irvin, who was in Miami.

"He said, 'I want to meet this heads up. I accept my responsibility. I was wrong and I'm going to pay the price.'

"He is clearly resolved to get this behind him," Jones said. "He talked about his future and what he needs to do to get ready for his first game.

"He said he is ready to take his medicine."

Irvin doesn't plan to appeal the NFL's decision.

The suspension comes eight days after Irvin pleaded no contest to felony cocaine possession charges for which he was fined $10,000, placed on probation for four years and sentenced to 800 hours of community service.

"You serve as a highly visible symbol of the Dallas Cowboys and the NFL," commissioner Paul Tagliabue wrote to Irvin in a letter informing the Cowboys star of the suspension.

"As such, you are an unusually prominent example for good and for bad for young people. While that visibility affords you substantial benefits, financial and otherwise, it significantly increases and magnifies the negative and detrimental impact of your misconduct on the league, its teams its players and its fans."

"The discipline for violations of the substance abuse policy is severe," Tagliabue said "... Under this collectively bargained program, players are disciplined for their own substance abuse or drug related misconduct. They are not disciplined for the misdeeds of others or because critics may view the justice system as lenient in drug cases or for other extraneous reasons."

Irvin was given a chance to appear before the commissioner but declined, the NFL said.

Irvin was found March 4 in a hotel room in Irving, Texas, near the Cowboys' workout facilities when a motel employee complained about noise. Irvin and two women also in the room were indicted April 1 on drug possession charges.

Last Tuesday, Irvin interrupted the trial to enter the no contest plea.

Tagliabue's letter to Irvin was strongly worded.

"In my judgment," he wrote, "the impact of your involvement with illegal drugs ... has had an extremely adverse impact on the league, its teams and players generally.

"The length of your suspension also reflects my judgment about the need, in light of some of your recent statements, to reinforce for you, the necessity of your compliance with the league's drug policy."

Irvin's absence will put pressure on Kevin Williams and Deion Sanders.

Williams, who started last year for the first time, is the only experienced wide receiver on the team. Sanders, the NFL's defensive player of the year two years ago, is working out almost exclusively at wide receiver in anticipation of the suspension, but he has never played the position on a regular basis.

"It's a deep relief now to know it's over," Sanders said. "We can get on with business. I'm happy it was just five games."

That also leaves a hole at cornerback, where Kevin Smith is still recovering from an Achilles tendon injury and Larry Brown has left for Oakland as a free agent. Coach Barry Switzer hopes Smith will be available to start the season, with second-year-man Alundis Brice at the other corner and Sanders as an occasional two-way player in passing situations.

"Deion's a great athlete," Switzer said Wednesday. "I have no reservations about his ability to make the switch."

Irvin won't be eligible to play until Oct. 13 against Arizona. The Cowboys have an off-week after their first five games.

"I don't think he should have been suspended," said Dallas guard Nate Newton. "It wasn't like he murdered anybody or anything. I'll tell you this, we can handle it. This team lives off adversity."

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