It's been awhile since Michael Irvin has had a network to call his own, but after the August 4th HOF Induction Ceremony he very well could be calling the NFL Network home. Irvin will be working the event for the NFL-N and future projects are sure to follow....

NFL Network returns to Canton, Ohio for the 45th Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony honoring the Class of 2008. NFL Network’s broadcast team is headlined by 2007 inductee Michael Irvin, Fran Charles, Steve Mariucci, and Adam Schefter for seven hours of live, high-definition coverage on Saturday, August 2 beginning at 4 p.m. ET.

Irvin, who last year delivered a stirring Hall of Fame induction speech, joins NFL Network’s Hall of Fame team to offer a first-hand perspective of the emotions felt by inductees as they enter the fraternity of pro football legends.

“There’s no better example of true passion for the game and the honor felt by becoming a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame than the emotional induction speech given by Michael last year,” said NFL Network Executive Producer Eric Weinberger. “His respect for what the Hall of Fame stands for and the legends it celebrates resonates with every football fan. We welcome his insights and knowledge as part of our team from Canton.”

I said it then and I'll say it now, Irvin's speech last year was what it's all about. It was good to finally see a real side to the man and not the overacting analyst he portrayed on ESPN. Hopefully he brings more honesty to this broadcast and maybe he'll work out for the NFL Network. Lord knows they need to add something that's not Deion Sanders.

Irvin joins NFL Network's Hall of Fame coverage (NFL Network)

Michael Irvin has actually done a pretty good job finding work following his firing by ESPN a year ago. He has a pretty successful radio show in Dallas and now he's back working with the Cowboys. No not as a player or in the front office, but as a pitchman for season tickets!

The retired wide receiver is now a pitchman on the team’s new season ticket sales Web site, now available only to current season ticket holders. The Cowboys are using the site to sell reserved season tickets in the new $1.1 billion stadium in Arlington to fans who own season tickets in Texas Stadium.

The introduction by Mr. Irvin, who refers to himself by his “Playmaker” nickname, says in the video: “This stadium is so remarkable, it makes me think about a comeback.”

A tour of the site is also narrated by Cowboys radio play-by-play announcer Brad Sham.

Good for you Mikey! I wish I could see the video to check out the giant mink coat he's wearing during the promo, but alas I am no Cowboys season ticket holder. It's good to see that Irvin is still getting work.

Michael Irvin Wants You To Visit His New House (Sports by Brooks)
Michael Irvin hits the Web to pitch Dallas Cowboys season tickets (Dallas News)

I feel extremely odd saying this, but with all of the Emmitt nonsense that's gone on this year I almost miss the guy. Turns out those of you in the Dallas are are in luck if you're in the same boat. Irvin is getting a midday talk show on ESPN Radio in the Big D....

Michael Irvin will co-host a daily show on ESPN-FM (103.3) beginning Jan. 10.

Irvin will work the 11 a.m.-to-2 p.m. time slot with Kevin Kiley, who most recently co-hosted a talk show on the ESPN affiliate in Los Angeles.

The Irvin-Kiley radio show will be called The Playmakers, in deference to Irvin's Hall of Fame career as a wide receiver with the Cowboys.

Even though it's in Dallas, through the wonders of the internet you can listen live at the stations website. Congratulation Michael now lets stay away from those Tony Romo-Genealogy comments.

Michael Irvin Lands Local Radio Gig (Dallas News)
The Playmaker (ESPN 103.3)

It's nothing that's what. Nothing I tell you!

Uhhh....Hmm? Well,....nope. The glasses and....the kiss....

You know what...I'm not even going there.

Michael Irvin’s Miss South Carolina Moment (ish) (The Big Lead)

Let me preface this by saying I can't/couldn't stand Michael Irvin in College, In The Pros, or as an "analyst". He was the one (Billy "White Shoes" Johnson is a joke) who turned the position of Wide Receiver into the most egotistical group of athletes in all of Sports.

Sure part of this loathing was because he was a Cane, a Cowboy, and really really good. But he was everything that Art Monk (2nd greatest receiver ever in my eyes) was not.

That disdain then carried over into his post-NFL life and ESPN. I really can't stand his whole shtick, but this was one hell of an induction speech...

Does it bite off of Jimmy V a bit? Sure. But I genuinely believe that Irvin knows he made some mistakes in life, and you can tell he is grateful and honored to have made it to this point.

God that title works on so many levels, but I'm referring to this quote specifically, "I'm not gonna do what everyone thinks I'm gonna do and... FLIP OUT... all I wanna know is one thing... who's coming with me?"

Why do I bring that up? Well ESPN will have it's entire "New" Studio Team at the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony this Saturday. And guess who's emceeing again....It's our good friend Chris Berman!

Trey Wingo will be your host and he will be joined Tom "Retard" Jackson, and newest analyst Emmitt Smith. Smith will no doubt kiss Irvin's butt, but I'm really hoping for Irvin to fly off the handle and start yelling "He Stole My Job!" (a la John Turturro in Secret Window..."You Stole My Stories!")

NFL Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony- Saturday, 6PM, ESPN

Other Inductees Include: Gene Hickerson, Bruce Matthews, Charlie Sanders, Thurman Thomas and Roger Wehrli.

P.S.- Cocaine is a helluva drug.

P.P.S.- I will be boycotting this ceremony until Art Monk is a member. I will then attend said ceremony and beat the crap out of Peter King. I don't care if he voted for him last year.

Or at least according to Pootietang....



A couple of things that humor me:

1) The fact that I was watching The BDSSP last night at midnight.
2) That Windows Live commercial in the begin is weird.
3) Tom Arnold.
4) Chris Rock throwing a frozen rope into that bucket with the football.
5) Rock really isn't THAT funny, but Rose/Irvin/Peete sure the hell think so.
6) "Mike can act!"- CR
7) "Jerry Rice is Jesus with cleats"- CR, on Mike Irvin
8) I can rewind and replay that throw at Yankee Stadium all day.
9) "Burt Reynolds would kick everyone's ass"- CR
10) The fact that I was watching The BDSSP last night at midnight.

Maybe Irvin wasn't blowing smoke when he said he left to pursue his "acting" career??? Dallas News reporter Barry Horn leads me to believe it was because Irvin really did want to explore other avenues of work.

Irvin, buoyed by his new Pro Football Hall of Fame status, overestimated his value to ESPN.

When the parties couldn't decide on a dollar amount, Irvin asked about supplementing his income outside the ESPN empire. He says he was told he could but only if ESPN, which doesn't like to have its employees appear elsewhere, approved of the project.

End of negotiations.

That actually makes a ton of sense. Call Irvin what you will, but I don't portray him as a liar. I might actually be turning around on him a bit if he stood up to the Leader (Come on, I said MIGHT! be).

ESPN protected Irvin for quite sometime, and with him gone it looks like (FREE) Harold Reynolds! is the loser in all of this.....Well, and Michael Irvin who might get the Craig Kilborn/David Caruso treatment when looking for work. But I'm fine with that.

Money Matters Made Irvin Leave ESPN (Dallas News)

It was windy as all hell in the Sports Blogging Mecca last night, so of course Comcast was screwed up. I had to watch basketball games that paused every4 seconds, so any video was choppy. Rather than subject you Charles Barkley's response to Mike D'Antoni I found you this to discuss. From Fanhouse via Ben Maller.

Looks like Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson are actually pretty close......

"When I talked to Tom we cried like babies. We just cried like babies. We had such great times together. And it was so amazing to have 2 grown men on the phone crying like we were crying...about not working together again. But then it says so much to how we enjoyed working together."

Awww. You cried with your sweet little retard. That's soooooo cute! I'm okay with crying, but "2 grown men on the phone crying" is not "amazing".

It amazed me that I didn't spend one second this weekend over at ESPN.com (I may be weening myself from it finally), so I decided to head over there today from some Post ASG coverage. I was mainly interesting in checking out True Hoop's first post on the site, to see if Simmons' announcing article was up yet (it's not), and to read the comments from the Michael Irvin Story.

Well I noticed one of those stupid SportsNation Polls in the bottom corner with the following question: What was the most exciting sporting event over the weekend?

Your Choices:

The Daytona 500- Not a chance in hell. I'm already sick of NASCAR on ESPN.....it was on the front page today when went to the site.
The NBA All-Star Game- Nope. Pretty damn boring....read the live-blog if you don't believe me.
The Dunk Contest- Nah....Good but not great.
The Nissan Open- I won't even dignify that with a response.
The Barkley-Dick Bavetta Race- But of course! You knew I was checking this one.

So what are the results?



If you can't read that......that's 37% for Barkley Bavetta. 1% higher than the Daytona 500 (Green=Barkely Race, Yellow=500). I'm thinking to myself.....way to go ESPNers! Way not to fall into the NASCAR trap. And then I saw this on the Michael Irvin article........



First......my site's mentioned on ESPN.com, which gives me all sorts of different emotions. Second.....How the hell would they let that comment even stay up on the site after some of the things I've said about their announcers? As of current check it's still on there. Oh well.....way to go AA'ers.

Within the past few weeks I've gone to under #20,000 on Technorati, I've sold 10 Free Harold! Shirts, been on Sports Bloggers Live, had the most watched sports video watched on You Tube. And now people are mentioning AA on ESPN.com? Crazy, crazy stuff. Thanks to all of you for making this a hell of a month.

Enough of the ass-kissing.....back to your regularly scheduled loathing.

So lost in all the hoopla this past weekend (I mean how can you top a 67 year old white man and 43 year old large black man kissing) was Michael Irvin actually being kicked to the curb by ESPN. Irvin seemed neither upset or bitter about the situation when reached for comment yesterday.....

ESPN "was great for me and I want to thank all of them for the opportunity." Irvin was in the film The Longest Yard and is interested in doing more acting: "When you work for ESPN, there are certain things you can't do.....I'd still love to talk football on TV, but also want to have leeway."

I guess the biggest problem I have with this is the timing. Why wait until now? Doesn't make much sense. I forgot the commenter who said this, but he/she mentioned that ESPN would be idiots for firing him for next season because he's going into the Hall. Great point......makes no sense. You know what makes even less sense though?

Logical additions to ESPN NFL studio shows include recently retired coach Bill Parcells, who has already worked at ESPN, and Emmitt Smith, who had a recent tryout at ESPN and last season worked on the NFL Network.

Please do not replace Irvin with Emmitt.....please. I thought Emmitt was horrible during the National Championship game. And Bill Parcells? Could you get someone with less personality??? I guess they are trying to get as far away from Irvin as possible with the new hires.




















Irvin Out (USA Today)
Maybe You're Crazy (Leave the Man Alone)
Michael Irvin out at ESPN

Fanhouse and Dan Shanoff have already reported this, but it has to be on this site as well. From the New York Post....

Is ESPN on the verge of cutting ties with NFL analyst Michael Irvin?

One industry source believes the decision has already been made, and that some at the network view the outspoken Irvin as a ticking time bomb, ready to explode into a public-relations nightmare.

ESPN did not confirm or deny the report, but issued a statement, saying: "We are currently in the process of discussing studio assignments for next season."

I haven't been this giddy in quite some time. What a way to start a Friday! Certainly there's more to come, but it would be a great move on their part. Also, is it possible that they are doing this in preparation for the Harold Reynolds Trial? What are your thoughts on this, and the possible replacement......Bill Parcells?

I know I do! Mikey Irvin will be on the Late Late Late Late Show with Carson Daly (some call it Last Call). If anything exciting happens (like he takes a bump off of Daly's chest) I'll try to post some video.

Fox is on the air, and someone needs to turn up Chris Rose's microphone. Never thought I'd write those words. We already have reference to Irish hopes of a "rare Notre Dame bowl victory." If you think about it, Notre Dame is the Temple of bowl games.

Chris Rose has apparently borrowed one of Michael Irvin's suits, and it's messing with my HDTV. He's joined on the pre-game set by Tim Brown and Jimmy Johnson, a Notre Dame / Dallas Cowboy / Miami Hurricane combination that makes me want to throw snowballs and batteries at my television.

I wish the Fox cameras could find this guy. I'd watch him instead of Jeannie Zelasko any day.



We get a quick, ten second video clip of a jazz musician talking to an utterly disinterested LSU squad. Did Fox really need to fill time with that? Now we see Charlie Weis walking on the field with Jon Bon Jovi. Too late, Charlie! LSU already buttered up Bon Jovi. Too little, too late.

James Carville, LSU alum and douchebag of democracy, gives us an LSU speech. He once said that Pennsylvania is "Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between." Fair enough. As a rebuttle, Regis Philbin (in full Regis mode) gives Charlie Weis a pep talk. Uh, Reege, I don't think he's watching. He's still trying to convince Bon Jovi to change an old song title to "Wonton: Dead and Deep Fried".

Our next pre-game treat is a one-on-one jerkfest with Brady Quinn and Terry Bradshaw. We have entered Pre-Game Hell. Now it's a Jeff Samardzija feature. Did you know he played baseball? No? You didn't hear that 19,397 times this year? I wonder if we'll find out that Tom Zbikowski is a boxer. Surely someone at Fox could provide us with that information. We have 19 minutes left. Plenty of time.

Can I say it first? Carmen Electra looks like she's 50 years old. The girl on the couch in that Taco Bell commercial is hotter.

The LSU band plays "God Bless America", which is great because it doesn't take them thirteen minutes to play it. Take a goddamned cue, Ronan Tynan. In that vein, a solo trumpet...trumpeter, trumpetist? Anyway, it's one guy and a horn. The same musician who spoke to the LSU team, now that I think about it. Eventually, the crowd takes over with its singing, and I must say that it's a refreshing change from the usual national anthem.

Nice enough performances from the marching bands, and it's readily apparent that the hostile crowd makes this is a total snake pit for Notre Dame. I almost feel bad for them. Almost.

We're inching up on game time, and Terry Bradshaw says we're going to enjoy two outstanding starting quarterbacks at their best. Probably, but just remember these two things: Brady Quinn gets erratic when he's under consistent pressure, and JaMarcus Russell isn't averse to throwing into triple coverage. They're both very good quarterbacks, but...well, Quinn could be running for his life tonight, and Notre Dame could be playing a lot of mixed up zone coverages.

Here in Denver, the local Fox affiliate is pimping an exclusive interview with Darrent Williams' mother. I feel dirtier having seen the commercial.

I'm not happy about Charlie Weis' gunt in high definition. Dennis Haysbert is the Honorary Available Fox Actor / Coin Flipper. The "heads" of the coin is the White House. I bet that goes over well in the crowd.