Michael Irvin calls misconduct allegations 'nonsense,' asks for surveillance video of incident
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Michael Irvin and his attorneys are pushing Marriott International to release surveillance footage of an interaction that resulted in him losing TV appearances during Super Bowl week.
"I want to see this tape," said Irvin, in his first public comments about what happened. "I want to see what I'm being accused of, what I've had to put my whole life on hold, why my family had to endure it."
Leading up to the Super Bowl, an employee of the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel made an unspecified allegation of misconduct against the Hall of Fame wide receiver.
Irvin's planned appearances for both ESPN and the NFL Network were cancelled later that week.
In the following days, Irvin filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit in Collin County against Marriott International and the accuser, whose identity is unknown. The case has since been moved to federal court.
"The allegations are nonsense," said Irvin's attorney, Levi McCathern. "We need to immediately get Michael back to work, and I believe that Renaissance needs to apologize to him."
The judge ruled last week to grant a motion filed by Irvin's attorneys for Marriott to provide discovery evidence on an expedited basis.
That deadline was Tuesday afternoon.
McCathern filed an emergency motion with the court on Wednesday, claiming the hotel chain is refusing to give them a copy of the surveillance video. The motion asks the judge to force Marriott to provide Irvin with a copy by Wednesday evening.
Hours after the filing, Judge Amos Mazzant set a hearing on the motion for Friday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Sherman.
Marriott called the emergency motion "legally flawed and premature."
According to Marriott, Irvin was invited to view the video, but he chose not to. Marriott claims Irvin ignored their invitation to review the footage himself, but had three of his attorneys watch it instead.
McCathern was able to watch the video in the office of a Dallas law firm. In a news conference Wednesday, he described what he saw: Irvin was walking back into the hotel after taking pictures with fans outside the front entrance. He encountered a female hotel employee, and they spoke for about a minute-and-a-half.
"Michael in this interaction touches her a sum total of four times," McCathern said, two of which were handshakes at the beginning and end of the conversation.
"He, one time, touches her on the elbow," he said, noting that it's common for Irvin to do that in conversation. "One other time he buckles over laughing and he kind of brushes her with his hand against her other elbow. That is it," McCathern said.
Two eye witnesses also made statements at the news conference. Both said they saw nothing inappropriate about the interaction between Irvin and his accuser.
Irvin said he felt "sickened" by the accusations.
"I meet people everyday walking in and out of a lobby," Irvin said. "I couldn't even tell you what she looked like. I don't know. I don't even know who I'm talking about when I supposed to do something. This just blows my mind that in 2023, we're still dragging and hanging brothers by a tree."