Michael Irvin said he was “hiding” before news broke about NFL Network removing him from its Super Bowl 2023 coverage due to an interaction with an unnamed woman in Arizona on Sunday night.
During an interview with “Shan & RJ” on 105.3 the Fan in Dallas on Wednesday morning, the former Cowboys star, who currently serves as an analyst with NFL Network and appears on ESPN’s “First Take,” explained that he was told he had to move to a different hotel due to his encounter with the woman. The incident occurred after Irvin said he returned from having dinner and a few drinks with former Cowboy Michael Brooks.
“There is a lot going on. I don’t know if you guys heard or not… Sunday night … This is tripping me out… I don’t remember it, but I guess when I came in, they asked [what I did] and I said, ‘I just went straight to the room,’” the Hall of Fame wide receiver said. “But I guess I had met somebody in the lobby. Talked to somebody in the lobby for about a minute and then I went to my room. And then after I got up there and got to work, they said tomorrow they had to move me in the hotel. I said, ‘Move me in the hotel for what?’
“So they moved my hotel, and I said, ‘What’s going on, guys? What’s happening? Why are are we moving hotels?’ They said, ‘Well, last night you walked in, you talked to somebody.’ I said, ‘I didn’t talk to anybody. I went straight to the room.’ And then they showed it on camera that I did talk to somebody. I talked to this girl for about a minute. I don’t know what — they didn’t show it to me. They told it to me. I didn’t see it… But that’s why they moved me, because I guess the girl said I said something to her within that minute that we talked, and so they moved me.”
Irvin added that he was unsure of his plan for the rest of the week, which is why he said he was “hiding.”
The hosts then acknowledged that there was no media coverage of the incident at the time of the interview.
“That’s exactly what’s happening and why I’m kind of hiding to wait and see how everything comes down, you know, in this world here,” Irvin said. “It was a minute meeting somewhere in the lobby. I don’t even remember it really because I had a few drinks, to tell you the truth… but that’s what they said.”
Irvin, who will not make his usual “First Take” appearance on Friday, told the Dallas Morning News that there “absolutely was no sexual wrongdoing” — and that he had a “45-second conversation” with the woman in the lobby of a hotel in Glendale, where the Super Bowl 2023 festivities are taking place.
“Honestly, I’m a bit baffled with it all,” Irvin told the outlet. “This all happened in a 45-second conversation in the lobby. When I got back after going out … I came into the lobby, and I talked to somebody. I talked to this girl. I don’t know her, and I talked to her for about 45 seconds. We shook hands. Then, I left. … That’s all I know.”
Irvin added that he does not know the woman’s name.
“I don’t really recall that conversation, to tell you the truth,” Irvin said. “We were out drinking. It was just a friendly conversation. ‘What’s up?’ I don’t even know. … I am totally perplexed.”
NFL Network spokesman Alex Reithmiller said in a statement to The Post that “Michael Irvin will not be part of the NFL Network’s Super Bowl LVII week coverage.”
Prior to news of the incident being made public, Irvin covered Open Night at Super Bowl 2023 on Monday, and appeared on ESPN’s “First Take.”
Irvin was accused of sexual assault on separate occasions in 2007 and 2017. No charges were filed in either incident.
