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Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin said he was disgusted when he was accused of misconduct by a Phoenix hotel worker during Super Bowl week, comparing it to a lynching.
“That makes me sick” said Irvin Wednesday during a news conference in Dallas about an incident that had garnered significant media attention over the past month. “It makes me sick because in this great country it takes me back to a time when a white woman accused a black man of something and a bunch of guys who were above the law ran into the barn and threw a rope around him Walk and drag him through the mud and hang him from a tree.”
The former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver made his remarks the day after Marriott International released videos and other materials related to Irvin’s $100 million lawsuit against Marriott over the February 5 incident involving a female employee at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown, where Irvin He performed leading up to the Super Bowl. Irvin’s attorney, Levi McCathern, said he could view but not copy the video Tuesday and filed a court order Wednesday to obtain it.
“If I did something wrong, I will face the consequences,” Irvin said, “but if you did something wrong, you mean them, then they should face the consequences.”
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Irvin has claimed there was no inappropriate behavior between him and the woman during a conversation in the hotel lobby. But their complaint prompted NFL Network and ESPN to cancel his television appearances, and Irvin responded by suing Marriott and the woman, whose identity was blacked out from documents, for alleged defamation and tortious interference in a business relationship.
Irvin said he pointed out at the time there were witnesses, but essentially he was told, “We don’t want to hear it.”
“How am I supposed to defend myself if I don’t even know what I’m defending myself against? They asked me, ‘Do you remember that girl you met in the lobby?’ I work and live in hotels. I stay in hotels all year round,” he said on Wednesday. “… I meet people walking in and out of a lobby every day. I couldn’t even tell you what she looked like. I don’t know who I’m talking about when I speak [how] I should have done something. It just blows my mind that in 2023 we’re still dragging and hanging brothers from a tree. It blows my mind that I don’t have a chance to defend myself – I don’t even know what I’m defending.”
McCathern said the incident lasted “about a minute and a half,” adding, “When you first see the video, Michael is outside taking pictures and the accuser is behind the front desk. The accuser emerges from behind the desk and approaches Michael and the group.”
The moment Irvin hits the accuser isn’t on the tape because there’s a pole in the way, McCathern said. “They greet each other first,” he said. “They shake hands. They touched four times. At the beginning he shakes her hand, at the end he touches her elbow. And once, when he was laughing, he touched [her] other elbow.”
Bryn Davis and Phil Watkins, two witnesses to the incident, described what they observed during the press conference, as they did in interviews with TMZ last month. On Wednesday, Irvin got emotional while listening to Davis. The men described meeting Irvin at a bar off the lobby and Irvin offered to pose for a photo with them. They stepped out of the crowded bar and the clerk approached.
Watkins, who hails from Australia and said he’s not a football fan, said “there was nothing unusual” and said there were “a few handshakes and laughs” and called the conversation “very lighthearted” before Irvin headed for the elevator .
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Marriott has declined media requests for comment, but a court document in the lawsuit, filed in Collin County, Texas, accused Irvin of making “harassing and inappropriate comments” toward the employee. Marriott claims it doesn’t own the Phoenix property, which is one of many in its portfolio that are tenants under the company name.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant granted Irvin’s request for an expedited investigation and set Marriott a Tuesday deadline to provide Irvin’s legal team with “any video footage, written reports and/or aggregated testimony” relating to Irvin’s February visit to the Hotel.
Irvin’s lawsuit states that after he returned to his room and fell asleep, he was awakened by members of the hotel’s security team, who told him he had to leave the hotel after a hotel employee told a manager that Irvin had been inappropriate to her behave. Later in the week, his scheduled TV appearances were cancelled.