On Dan Patrick's radio show on Monday, ESPN analyst Michael Irvin was discussing what he sees as the great upside of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. About three and a half minutes into his appearance on the show, Irvin said Romo is a good athlete, then suggested that must mean he has an ancestor who is black.
"He doesn't look like he's that type of an athlete," Irvin said of Romo. "But he is. He is, man. I don't know if some brother down in that line somewhere, I don't know who saw what or where, his great-great-great-great-grandma ran over in the 'hood or something went down."
Patrick tried to suggest to Irvin that he shouldn't go there, but Irvin was having none of it, continuing:
"If great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandma pulled one of them studs up out of the barn, 'Come on in here for a second,' you know, and they go out and work in the yard. You know, back in the day."
Yeah, the thread title should read "Michael Irvin is STILL an idiot". I honestly don't know why anyone still takes him seriously, but then again I ask the same thing about Joe Thiesmann everyday.
"That's the thing: Maybe he'll be up and down this season, but when he's up, is there another center in the league quite like him? He protects the rim, passes out of double teams, has great hands around the basket, up-fakes on his jump-hooks, rebounds in traffic, even has a motor that keeps going and going (unlike a stiff like Eddy Curry). I'm not sure what's missing here. This is stunning. This is startling. There's almost no precedent for it. Just what the Lakers needed: More obscenely good luck. Meanwhile, I have to watch Al Jefferson whip jump-hooks off the front of the rim for the third straight season. I will now pour scalding hot water down my pants." -Bill Simmons on Andrew Bynum (11/08/06)
Yeah, the thread title should read "Michael Irvin is STILL an idiot". I honestly don't know why anyone still takes him seriously, but then again I ask the same thing about Joe Thiesmann everyday.
I think he was referring to the fact that the person calling someone an idiot didn't even spell Michael Irvin's name right.
What bothers me most is that I think ESPN really trys to encourage this type of behavior from people like Irvin. They think it's entertaining and makes for good radio and/or television.
Rusty Shackleford is just the name he uses to order Pizza with.
I'm not sure exactly why people are upset with this. Maybe I need to hear it to get bothered. Usually when he's on Patricks show he's goofy and laughing and joking the whole time, so when I read this I pictured the same thing. That he was being a big dork and joking around for the most part.
Am I wrong, or are people making something out of nothing? Heck even if he was serious I don't know that I'm offended or anything.
I mean really the man has done a lot of stupid things. This one hardly seems worthy.
Make the color of his skin white instead of black, and imagine the uproar those comments would have caused. They got Jimmy the Greek fired long ago. Yet Irvin skates along with no disciplinary action (that we know of).
I understand that Irvin plays the buffoon. Remarks like this are racist, though, and don't belong on the airwaves.
Just finished watching Around the Horn and PTI. Not a single mention of this incident. I'm thinking you guys are blowing it out of proportion (or at the very least, you're taking it more seriously than mainstream sports media).
If you are ESPN, do you bring the fact that Irvin is an idiot up during your broadcasts? No. And there's pretty much no sports media other than ESPN with major national influence right now.
The story went national this weekend (finally), so ESPN decided to comment on it. If nobody picked it up, there wouldn't have even been an apology.
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