Tuesday, July 23, 1996

Michael Irvin is no longer worthy of fans' hero worship

By Greg Cote
Knight-Ridder Newspapers

MIAMI (KRT) - Back in the early Westerns on TV and in the movies, life was simple. You could tell good guys from bad guys by the color of their cowboy hats, and there seldom was ambiguity.
Nobody wore a gray hat. Nowadays the moral gauge is not as clear, especially in sports, where hero and villain so often are the same person.

Maybe Michael Irvin would be easier to peg if he were wearing a Cowboy hat right now, and I mean the hard silver kind with the blue star.

The reasons he isn't are complicated, and so are the emotions that must be weighed in judging how we view Irvin today.

Irvin is the star receiver whose closet association with cocaine has been outed in fairly spectacular scandal. As an aside, we also now know that Irvin, as a husband and father, was rather casual about fidelity. Or so we assume from the two topless dancers found with Irvin in that Dallas hotel room next to the plates of cocaine.

None of us is perfect, true. But few of us are as exotically imperfect as Irvin was that day of his arrest. Soon to come was last week's sentence of four years' probation, a $10,000 fine and 800 hours of community service - not to mention a four-game NFL suspension still likely.

The episode has snatched the hero's cape from Irvin. Dolfans disagree, evidently.

Thousands watching a Dolphins practice Sunday stood and cheered at the surprising sight of Irvin, who was accompanied by a small entourage of five including kid brother Derrick.

Irvin has been recast as a drug abuser and philanderer, a man who let the money and the fame get to him in the worst ways, but, to Dolfans, he remained the favorite son - local boy made good, not turned bad.

Among fans leaving Dolphins practice Sunday, it was not hard to locate people who had cheered Irvin. I wanted to know why.

"Because I'd love to see him right out there, in a Dolphin uniform," explained fan Jon Hughes, 39, of Hollywood, in typical response. "If he made a mistake ...it doesn't take away from him as a player."

The reaction is different in Dallas. Radio call-in lines scorched Monday with Cowboys fans venting anger at Irvin. First they were disappointed by his arrest. Then they questioned why he should skip the start of training camp to be with family and friends here.

Now they hear he's bopping by Dolphins camp? Safe to say, Cowboys fans think if Irvin is going to be at any NFL camp, it ought to be theirs.

They are right, of course.

Irvin showing up at Dolphins camp was just one more lapse in judgment. Like when he showed up in Dallas court wearing a fur coat. Like when he was seen partying at Dan Marino's sports bar in Coconut Grove so soon after his arrest.

Sunday - ostensibly in town to mend his wounds, bond with family, sort out his life - he swings by Dolphins camp and ends up posing for pictures with a bunch of women.

For the record, Irvin, 30, has this season and next remaining on his Dallas contract. After that I'd bet he reunites with Jimmy Johnson in Miami.

It might be a great signing. The thing is, the measure of a man extends beyond football.

I would tell my 9-year-old son there is no better receiver in football than Michael Irvin.

Then I'd tell him to go find a more worthy hero.

(Greg Cote is a sports columnist for the Miami Herald. Write to him at: Miami Herald, One Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132.)

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