Getty ImagesSince bullying is the topic du jour, it makes sense to get the perspective of a Hall of Fame player who knows a thing or two about the subject.
Former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin addressed the topic on Wednesday’s edition of Cleveland Browns Daily with Vic Carucci.
“[People have] said, ‘Would you have gone through it? Would you have allowed it?’” Irvin said. “I said, ‘Absolutely not. Are you serious?’ The only thing I can relate it to is we were coming back from a game one time, and I don’t remember the game, but we were on the airplane and Charles Haley, he was in one of those moods. He was going in hard after one of our staff members. I won’t say his name, out of privacy for him … and the guy wasn’t saying anything.
“Charles just kept going at him, and I said, ‘Hey, enough of that, man.’ He said, ‘I’m going to come back there and kick your . . .’ I said, ‘No, you’re not. No, you’re not kicking nobody’s butt. We’re on an airplane. We’re going to stop this right now. We’re not doing any of this.’ Charles said, ‘Oh, what are you going to do? You going to come up here and whoop my butt?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not going to come up there to whoop your butt, but I promise you, you’re going to come through me to whoop his. That’s it. We’re going to stop this now.’
“I was scared out of my wits. Charles is a big fella and he’s crazy, but thank God, he didn’t come out of his chair. I didn’t want to go at Charles, but by no means was Charles getting to that guy because he was wrong. He was wrong and thank God he stayed in that chair. It calmed down, but he was way out of line and off-base. You’ve got to stand up, and if I was in that room with that guy, Incognito, I promise you, I would’ve said something about that.”
Irvin apparently shared that same story during the Thursday night pregame show on NFL Network. In neither setting did he mention his own experiences as the aggressor in a bullying situation.
The first chapter of Boys Will Be Boys, Jeff Pearlman’s 2008 look at the Cowboys of the 1990s, is titled “Scissors to the Neck.” It tells the story of the time that Irvin, yes, took scissors to the neck of a teammate.
It started at training camp in 1998, when the six-foot-five, 318-pound McIver got into in a barber chair when it was Irvin’s turn.
“Seniority!” Irvin yelled, but McIver didn’t leave the chair.
“Seniority! Seniority! Seniority!” Irvin screamed. “Punk, get the f–k out of my chair!”
Teammate Erik Williams told McIver not to get up, because McIver wasn’t a rookie. Eventually, McIver stood up and shoved Irvin. Irvin shoved McIver back. McIver shoved Irvin again. Then, McIver grabbed Irvin and threw him toward a wall.
Next, McIver did what so many football people have said this week that a “grown-ass man” should do when bullied: McIver punched Irvin in the mouth.
And then Irvin grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed McIver in the neck.
“The motion was neither smooth nor slick, but jagged,” Pearlman writes, “like a saw cutting felt. The tip of the scissors ripped into McIver’s skin, just about his collarbone and inches from the carotid artery. McIver let loose a horrified scream.”
So, yeah, Irvin is an authority on locker-room bullying. But he’s got a much better story than the one he told about Charles Haley — with a lesson that is much more relevant to Martin’s decision not to punch Richie Incognito in the mouth.
or the time he bullied his coke dealer
That’s not bullying! That’s a disagreement and a fight. This is getting out of hand.
Irvin was looking at a possible 20 year visit as a guest of the state if McIver had pressed charges (Irvin was on parole for coke). And actually – guest is the wrong word. When you have Irvin’s resources you’re required to pay for your room and board.
I’m surprised McIver settled for just 6 figures.
Thas aggravated assault..Cowboys did a good job of brushing this one under the table..
I would punch them all in the mouth, just before I woke up.
I can man up in my dreams with the best of them.
I was tiny when I was first in school but one day in kindergarten I decided to jump off the see saw and my poor friend bounced pretty.
I got my butt smacked by a pretty cute teacher! Was I a bully or a crafty lad?
If Irvin can make up stuff, so can I.
I remember one of the first things I thought about when Hernandez was carted off to jail after the police officers took him out the front door of his estate was, “Man, what a totally different world will he be forced into while in lock-up.” After these last few days, I am kind of thinking the locker room and life therein with all his other mates, really wasn’t all THAT different…kind of scary thought.
A third hand account is not fact.
Yelling at someone to get up is not bullying, also McIver got physical with Irvin first, how is Irvin the bully in that situation? It would be self defense, sounds like Irvin was getting his ass kicked.
Irvin was definitely an idiot (I’d use another word in a non-moderated setting) in that incident but that’s not something I’d consider “bullying” as it’s being defined in the Incognito situation.
But again, not excusing Irvin being a psycho.
Irvin was pushed first and then punched by someone 100 pounds heavier and he made a snap descision. Sounds like self defense to me, even if it was an overreaction.
Just give the man credit for standing up for one of the staff, Damn why all the hate???
I am kind of thinking the locker room and life therein with all his other mates, really wasn’t all THAT different…kind of scary thought.
Except being in the locker room is a choice that involes a nice living and jail is neither.
And that is why criminal assault of any kind – making terroristic threats, aggravated and simple assaults, and plain harassment is against the rule of law on the street, on the field and anywhere in any locker room, school room, or living room. Rule of law – every citizen is subject to the law. The sport of football and its domain is not exempt of, or exclusive to ignore such.
yeah, so it’s not bullying when both parties are willingly fighting.
Wow, that’s insane. That Dallas lockeroom had to have been a mess, no wonder they didn’t get any rings.
I allaud Michael Irvin for sharing those two personal stories and thank him for standing up for Charles Haley when nobody else would. We need more people like that in normal life let alone in the NFL because of how much corruption there is in the NFL. My comments on the second story is Erik Williams was really the aggressor so should have took care of him, not by force, but by reason if there could be any reason in that situation but he was young and acted on impulse – couldn’t help, but think Tupac would have done the same thing in that situation; not stabbing, but fight.
Wait your turn, b tch.
Irvin already had the scissors in his hand, his own personal hair shears because it’s unsanitary to share scissors between haircuts unless they’re sterilized. That’s what those big jars of “Barbicide” that you see when you go to the Cuttin’ Corral are for. Irvin didn’t grab the scissors from anywhere as he already had them in his hand when McIver escalated the incident from words to physical violence.
“(Irvin was on parole for coke).”
Probation. Deferred adjudication, actually.
Yeah…because everyone saw the Irvin-McIyver incident. Even Pearlman….and Pearlman has never embellished anything. Irvin must be at fault. ….I mean he used cocaine and nailed hookers.
I’m starting to hate football.
I wish someone would bully Irvin, Sapp and
Sanders so they’d leave the NFL network
Look this one up.
There’s another story when Irvin was a freshman at Miami, and an OL Snr tried to cut in front of him in a line for something (maybe cafeteria) on purpose, to show Freshman Irvin up.
Irvin punched him in the head.
But isolated incidents aren’t bullying.
Bullying is a sustained, targeted, systematic style abuse that carries on for a period of length, and is personal.
If it’s not personal, it’s not bullying.
Being attacked for sitting in someone’s chair once, or cutting in front of them, or being a rookie – these things, aren’t bullying.
The Martin case seems diff., because ppl were going out for him bcz he was Jonathon Martin.
Irvin stabbing him in the neck with scissors is not bullying at all. It’s assaulting someone bigger than you after he was getting thrown around like a rag doll.
And saying punk get out of my chair is also not bullying. It’s saying i’m Michael Irvin and it’s my turn for a haircut, who do you think you are butting in line…
None of this is at all in relation to what Incognito did.
Dude is so full of himself.
So what this article is saying, is that Incognito might be looking at a long productive career as the face of the nfl on its own channel?
Irvin put his hands on Mciver first. Thats assault. Mciver never esculated the situation after a couple pushes. Then irvin went way over the bounds of a fist fight and stabbed him.
I cant wrap my mind around how someone could defend stabbing someone in a fistfight. Michael Irvin is a punk.
Irvin is in another world…this “Hall Of Shamer” is a joke!
How was that McIver thing bullying? Do you even know what bullying is? That is called a fight. The Haley story actually did involve bullying. How does it feel for Michael Irvin to be smarter than you?
I don’t understand what Irvin and Sapp add to a television show. Everybody pretends these guys are interesting and insightful when in reality they are standing up there screaming and jibber jabbering incoherently.
How bout them Cowboys
Pretty sure that is a disagreement and fight that got out of hand.
Not bullying.
Irvin was dead wrong and a coward for not fighting honorably, but that IS NOT BULLYING.
I wonder how many stories do we have of Romanowsky being a bully…. Haley was crazy…Remember Lyle Alzados??? Sure he was a bully