Michael Irvin no longer with ESPN

uva3021 · #1 02-18-2007, 11:21 AM

IT'S OFFICIAL -- IRVIN OUT

Quote:

ESPN has formally announced that Michael Irvin won't be back for the 2007 season.

"Michael will not be with us this fall," ESPN spokesman Bill Hoffheimer said, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Hoffheimer reportedly stressed that Irvin had not violated any contractual morals clause, and that the decision was the product of the network's "annual review."

A year ago, Irvin's contract was up and ESPN opted to keep him around. The length of his new deal wasn't (to our knowledge) reported. Our guess is that the Irvin contract was for more than one season -- and that ESPN likely will be paying him not to work for the balance of it.

IRVIN WAS ON SHORT LEASH

Quote:

As it turns out, ESPN had Michael Irvin on a short leash, via a one-year contract signed in 2006 with a three-year option that, in the end, ESPN opted not to exercise.

"It's fine," Irvin said Saturday night regarding his departure from ESPN. "These are exciting times for me and my family. There are a lot of opportunities to explore. I truly appreciate what ESPN allowed me to do, but it was time to move on. I loved working with those guys . . . but I feel blessed enough to do other things."

Let's see. Nuclear physics? Um, no. Pediatric oncology? Well, no. Milking his NFL fame by signing his name on football cards and photographs for money? Yeah, baby.

Of course, another "opportunity" (as we vaguely recall suggesting at some point in the past) would be for Irvin to write a tell-all book about his time at ESPN.

" . . . and then, while we were watching the Cowboys and the Packers game, Chris Berman lifted up his left butt cheek and farted louder than I talk. And for some reason it smelled like leather."

In all, Irvin spent four seasons with ESPN. If he hopes to continue to talk about football on the air, his options are limited to FOX (which has no studio show openings, since Terry Bradshaw is still alive), CBS (which already has too many cooks at the counter), and NBC (which likewise has no room at the Rock).

Other options include radio, where the unpredictability that made him a liability at ESPN could be a selling point.

And we applaud ESPN for making the right decision here. Hopefully, the move represents an effort to instill greater credibility into the operation, and will be followed by decisions to part ways with others about whom we, and other, have complained.

Of course, if that would happen, then we wouldn't have anything to complain about.

Hmmmm.

Hey, Bristol, is there any chance you might reconsider this one?