That Time Michael Irvin Told Tim Brown Not to Come to Dallas

By 1994, coming off back-to-back Super Bowl Championships, Michael Irvin, Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith were well established as The Triplets--and Irvin apparently wasn’t too hot on the idea of becoming quadruplets with the addition of another future Hall of Fame receiver.

In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week, Charean Williams relates the story of Dallas native Tim Brown approaching Irvin at the Pro Bowl after the 1993 season. To hear Brown tell it, he was met with outspoken resistance from The Playmaker when he mentioned the idea of returning to Dallas as a free agent. In fact, Irvin told Brown flatly not to come to the Cowboys.

“I think it was the first year I made the Pro Bowl as a receiver, and I was a free agent going into that offseason, the offseason of ’94, and I ended up signing with the Broncos,” Brown told reporters on a Hall of Fame conference call on Thursday. “I sort of happily walked up to Michael thinking it was going to be a great concept, and I said to him, ‘Hey, man, look, man, I’m thinking about coming home to Dallas. I would love to come there and be No. 2 to you.’ He got so upset. ‘Tim Brown, don’t you ever think about coming... .’

“I was like, ‘Mike, man, what’s going on?’ He was like, ‘No. I’m glad you told me first. I’m calling Jerry right now and telling him don’t do it.’ So that was pretty much the end of that conversation, and I was a little upset, because I did want to come home, and I wanted to play for the Cowboys. I’m glad that worked out the way it did for many reasons at this particular point. But yeah, that is a true story.”