One of the things I enjoy most about sports is when former players share embarrassing or funny stories that we as fans would never have known about. We all know foolishness happens in the locker room but often times no one talks about it. Former Dallas Cowboys great Darren Woodson has a memory of Micheal Irvin that he will never forget.
Woodson spent some time with Russillo & Kanell on ESPN radio and BleacherReport has shared this story that would leave us all shocked.
“We get into mini-camps, and the mini-camps back then, when you get drafted, there’s the first camp that you have seven days after the draft — you have what we call mini-camps — and it was just the rookies. No veterans around, just the rookies. so we’re at rookie mini-camp and we’re in a meeting room, and Dave Campo — God bless him, as crazy as he was — but Dave Campo was our defensive backs coach at the time. And he’s putting in — we’re in the film room — and he’s installing the defense, so we’re watching film. It’s a dark room, much like this room; it’s a dark room, doors behind us and we’re watching film.”
“All of a sudden, the doors just get slammed, ‘Boom!’ You hear this noise, door opens up … 12 guys in this room, all rookies, turn around. There’s a guy at the door — happened to be Michael Irvin. [I’d] never met Michael Irvin; [it was my] first time ever meeting Michael Irvin. [He] comes through the door; he’s butt naked — not a towel on, no socks; no jockstrap — just butt naked. [He] walks in and says, ‘You young fellas, all you 4.2s and 4.3s that Jimmy drafted,’ he says, ‘I’m going to absolutely kill you when we come in for veteran mini-camp, so I just wanted to let you know, you better bring your lun-,’ and you know Mike, Mike had that big, booming voice. ‘You better-!’ ‘I’ma let you-!’ ‘Let me tell you something!’ That’s how he used to talk. ‘Let me tell you something: I’m gonna kill every last one of ya in one-on-ones!’ [He] walks right back out the door, and we’re sitting there — I’m telling you, when he was going off, I knew he was butt naked; I’m looking at him like, ‘This dude has no clothes on,’ and he’s talking [and] he made, like, eye contact … It’s funny now because Mike and I are really close, and I just saw him not too long ago at the Pro Bowl, and he still remembers the story.”
Irvin seems like that crazy dude that you always have to keep your eyes on. He was clearly the vocal leader for the Cowboys in the 90’s. In addition to that, there was probably wasn’t anyone in the locker room that would stand up to him.
