Friday, January 3, 1997

Cowboys' latest controversy feeds talk shows, tabloids

By Barry Horn / The Dallas Morning News (Jan. 3, 1997)

DALLAS (KRT) - The prospect that Michael Irvin might ever again have to look someone in the eye and ask, "Can I tell you who I am?" diminishes with each passing news report.

In New York, the tabloid "New York Post" greeted the new year Wednesday with front-page photos of Irvin and Dallas Cowboys' teammate Erik Williams. The headline read, "America's Team or America's Most Wanted."

Across the country, on NBC's "Tonight Show" stage in Burbank, Calif., Jay Leno's first monologue of 1997 was peppered not with tired references to O.J. Simpson and his problems. Instead, the punch lines referred to Irvin, Williams and the Cowboys. Those who don't stay up late could have caught stories on Irvin, Williams and the Cowboys early Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today Show."

Meanwhile, CNN has packaged the reports of Dallas-based sports correspondent Ed Werder and beamed them on its international network, a spokesman said Thursday, "to 210 countries and territories around the world."

At the heart of the latest interest in Irvin, Williams and the Cowboys is an accusation that both were involved in a Sunday night attack on a 23-year-old Mesquite, Texas, woman at Williams' home in Far North Dallas.

Although there has not been a formal charge or arrest, a spotlight was supplied by a Tuesday news conference held by the Dallas Police Department.

"All of us in the media are like lemmings," said Mike Thompson, program director at Dallas-Fort Worth's all-sports radio station, KTCK-AM (1310). "There is a belief by all of us that if a government agency calls a news conference on the last day of the year, there must be something to it. We can't say, 'I'm not going to cover it because I think it might be wrong.' That would be selective and biased."

And so Thompson has spent the days since the news conference charting the national television and out-of-town radio appearances of his talk-show hosts.

Norm Hitzges, host of a morning sports talk show on KLIF-AM (570), said he has been a guest on more than a dozen talk shows across the country over the last few days. He has turned down a dozen more. "The tone is the same in all the cities," Hitzges said. "What the hell is going on with this football team and what's next? I've done more interviews on this subject than during the Texas Rangers playoffs."

All the lights, cameras and microphones focused on Irvin and Williams don't surprise Dr. Don Beck, director of the National Values Center in Denton.

"The whole sports enterprise is a huge monster," Dr. Beck said. "On top of the pure game is heaped all kinds of ancillary organizations. From the card business to the endorsements to the Nikes of the world to the media, the monster has to be fed.

"A topic like this resonates far and wide. This story leaps out of the sports zone to an area of national concern. That's why it has legs. In some minds, what's wrong with America's Team is what's wrong with America. Irvin, in particular, is a trigger for the debate."

In July, Irvin was sentenced to four years' probation after pleading no contest to cocaine possession. At the time, it widely was reported that Irvin, the Cowboys' star wide receiver, had asked police who initially investigated the call that led to the criminal charges if he might be allowed to tell them who he is.

Williams recently completed two years' probation for a 1994 drunk-driving charge. His home was the scene of an alleged sexual assault in April 1995. The 17-year-old girl who made that accusation eventually dropped the charge against Williams and a friend. Neither was indicted.

Events of the week have turned the Cowboys' Valley Ranch practice facility into a media circus. With players and coaches busy preparing for Sunday's National Football League playoff game against the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, N.C., many of the sights and sounds coming from Valley Ranch have been media people taking pictures of other media people chasing reluctant players in the parking lot.

"That's not unprecedented here," said Rich Dalrymple, the Cowboys' director of media relations. He reports the number of media representatives is about right for this time of year. The focus of their interest, he admits, is different.

With the media road show in Dallas, the Panthers - the second-season franchise whose story is all about on-field accomplishments - have worked in relative anonymity at their practice facility.

The "Charlotte Observer" newspaper had sent a reporter to Dallas early in the week to write about the Cowboys.

"He has spent far too much time on this and far too little on football, as it turns out," said Mike Persinger, the "Observer' "s deputy sports editor. "That's been the biggest disappointment to me. All this makes very little difference, football-wise, to our readers."

Persinger said there was discussion in his newsroom about covering a story in which there hasn't been an arrest.

"Richard Jewell's name came up," Persinger said, referring to the man law enforcement authorities identified as the Olympic park bomber in Atlanta. Authorities were forced to publicly clear Jewell when no charges were filed. "Somebody said this could be another case like his."

Not really, said Dr. Beck.

Unlike Jewell, "the backgrounds of Irvin and Williams coupled with the police pronouncement gave the story instant credibility," Dr. Beck said.

"This story will last longer. This is Michael Irvin. These are the Cowboys. This is America's Team."

(c) 1996, The Dallas Morning News.

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