From Darren Woodson, we get an offseason gift of an old Michael Irvin story.
Woodson was asked to tell “one awesome story” from his playing career in a recent appearance on ESPN Radio’s Russillo and Kanell, and he went way back to his rookie year of 1992, when he was in his very first NFL minicamp.
This was rookie minicamp, so Irvin, who was drafted in 1988, shouldn’t technically have been there. But, while the new Cowboys were sitting in a meeting room, he showed up none the less to deliver a message to the crop of rookies, which included a number of defensive backs with world class speed. Having heard the story, we’d doubt any of them have forgotten that message in the 24 years since.
"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,” Woodson said, via the Dallas Morning News. “[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.
"But that's Michael Irvin."
Fantastic.
