American Football: Michael Irvin arrested

ex cowboy receiver and ESPN analyst Michael Irvin was arrested when police found a pipe in his car after he was stopped for speeding, Irvin said the pipe wasn't his...

sports.yahoo.com...;_ylt=AksyDsOsr3lrN.766zmMzjI5nYcB?slug=ap-irvinarrested&prov=ap&type=lgns

Do you suppose ESPN will let him go because of this? They got rid of Rush Limbaugh for something he said, while antagonistic and incorrect, not illegal.

Here is what I love: I read long stories on this on both espn.com and cnn.com. BOTH referred to the object as a "drug pipe." Well, I grew up on the S.F. Peninsula in the late 60's, am a first-generation hippie, remember when one advance-ordered one's Beatles albums (and the single "Hey Jude," which was #1 for NINE weeks), recall getting tear gassed by Hayakawa's S.F. State campus cops, etc.

Here's a news flash: There's more than one kind of "drug pipe." And you don't have to be from my generation and part of the world to know it. What KIND of "drug pipe" was this? Was it a little "hash pipe" or some other sort of pot pipe, from a tiny little one you get a few hits off to a bong? Or was it a "base pipe" or some other type commonly seen in crack coc aine houses, a real scourge (though not compared to crank) and America's equivalent of opium dens?

I'm not trying to get too high and mighty about drugs, here. I did ALL the biggies of my generation when young, and when I was 18 and dumb as a post, I even smoked opium once with the coach of the Taiwanese Olympic ping-pong team, who happened to live near my dorm. (As dumb as I was at 18, I had 2 immediate reactions: first, it's the best high by far that I've ever had; second, no way am I ever doing this again, because everyone knows how addictive it is.)

But Irwin is not 18... not by a light year. If he's smoking pot, I couldn't care less, considering the enormously greater proglems I see as a criminal lawyer from booze vs. pot use. I quit pot before age 30, and am surprised if a man of Irwin's age is still into it, but it's none of my biz and I don't care.

But if that was a crack coke pipe.... Well, that's a whole 'nother story. There is a popular saying in Northern California's p.c. circles that federal laws about crack coke sentencing are "racist," since it's no worse than powder coc aine. I talked to a couple of real-world black guys who were friends, and several real-world black guys who were clients, and they all said in effect, "That statement is a good political soundbyte, but it's b.s. We've smoked crack AND snorted powder coke aplenty. Crack is a LOT more potent and dangerous." Having no personal experience on the subject, I'm taking their word.

Irwin's denial's sound a lot like the steroid users' denials to me. How about the rest of you? I mean, it COULD be true, but....

Anyway, isn't it neat that all the media is serving up--or, at least, all they INITIALLY serve up--is "drug pipe?" Think that would have happened in your local paper if it were your bust? Hey, Mike, I hope you don't get in too much trouble for having a hash pipe and some pot brownies.

You know what I like about this story? The inconsistencies. When I first heard about the story, ti was a crack pipe. When I read about it in today's paper, it was a pot pipe.

And he told the media that it was a friends. More specifically, a friend that he's known for about 17 years. He told the police that it was his brothers. His youngest brother is aroudn 30.

He was driving 78 in a 60 MPH zone. He was also cited (but not ticketed?) for not having his driver's liscence and failing to signal to change lanes. He had an outstanding arrest warrent for a speeding ticket, which led to his car being searched. He did not consent to the search, but it was not needed.

Add that all up. Throw in the guys history with drugs. And there was no mention about him taking a drug test?

As far as his ESPN job goes, aegis, I'll defer to our resident expert, BHN, but a frind told me he doubts that they will fire him due to legal issues. Apparently it would be cheaper to send him to rehab. BHN?

what a surprise (no really)

Gibbs, I'm strictly a criminal lawyer, but yeah, it does make sense that it would be cheaper. And throughout its being, ESPN has pretty well convinced me it's gutless and wants no part of taking any courageous, controversial stands--at least, not intentionally.

BHN, yeah, the gutless punks at ESPN, you hit the nail on the head there.

Back when Irvin started, I turned the channel every time the camera switched to him. I wish everyone would do that. Force them to get rid of the jerk.

Did you see that ESPN took a stand and suspended him? For a whole week.

A whole week even, i bet it's with pay though, kind of like a little vacation. I wish i could get suspended with pay.

DEAR GIBBS BABY and others,

Yeah, you can sure count on ESPN to take a courageous stand when one of its own does something wrong.

This reminds me of what happened when Rush Limbaugh rendered a straight-up racist diatribe on ESPN about Donovan McNabb. Now, if he'd talked about Kordell Stewart's not being a real QB, and about the media's being afraid to call him on not having the judgment required of a real QB, then--as the late Ralph Wiley himself said the next week--Limbaugh would have had a point. But to say that about McNabb, who is no Manning or Brady, but is better than a lot of starting QB's, was garbage which spewed out and perpetuated racist stereotypes.

Well, Rush paid his price. But....

What about Steve Young, Chris Berman and especially TOM JACKSON? Young is a right-winger but a very intelligent one; Berman is supposed to be pretty "progressive" and is from S.F.; Jackson is, by the accounts I've heard, a proud black man. W.T.F. were they thinking while they just sat there gutlessly and not only failed to interrupt Herr Rush, but also failed to say one word in response?

If I were the president of ESPN, I would have punished the hell out of those three. But at big, brave ESPN, all they had to do was apologize the next week.

And wasn't it a convincing trio of apologies? Right up there with these steroid denials. Gee, folks, we weren't listening and didn't really catch the upshot of what Rush was saying. We didn't notice the blatantly racist stereotypes in what Rush was belching out.

I'm not black, so I suppose it's not proper for me to rant about Jackson's being a disgrace to his race, but where the hell were his heart, mind and soul during all of that?! And Berman?! I guarantee you he had to know how those remarks were going to play out, and so, for that matter, did Young. Why the hell didn't any of them say anything? Had they been told to shut up and let Rush start trouble? And why the hell didn't ESPN do anything at all to those three guys?

Yeah, ESPN did take a stance belatedly and fire Limbaugh, when they HAD to, but that was it. I pretty much believe the other three guys' apologies were mandated and scripted by the network, or at least the apologies of Young and Berman were.

Just what would it take for that network to adopt a courageous, principled stand that was honest, spontaneous and NOT necessitated by polls, viewer reactions, etc.? Maybe if a group of neo-Nazi right-wing extremists, or neo-Stalinist left-wing extremists, tore up some stands and severely beat some fans due to their skin color or religion? Or would they have to run THAT by their parent network, ABC, before taking a stance on it?

On a less socially important note, many of y'all will recall something I alluded to the other day. Several years ago, on the final Saturday of the season, two of the three unbeatens lost their game and their shot at the Big One. The first was UCLA, which lost an absurdly high-scoring game to Miami of Florida because, in large part, of a terrible official's call late in the game. ESPN's account of the game said not one word about that--which is like discussing Ted Kennedy's career without mentioning Chappaquidik, or Richard Nixon's without discussing Watergate. (See? I'm trying to be politically neutral here.... Any credits for that?)

GIBBS BABY, you don't know how glad I am to have found someone who shares my sentiments about the gutlessness of that network. I don't know what can be done about it, since ALL hardcore sports fans pretty much have to watch a large percentage of their sporting events on ESPN or ESPN2. I mean, can you imagine swearing off ALL events which are aired on either of those stations? We'd just about die.

How's this for an idea? Perhaps boycott their parent network, ABC, as soon as football season is over. I easily could survive without watching any ABC television shows. Couldn't you? Wouldn't it be fun to write ABC a letter telling them why their network is being boycotted?

I don't know how many people could be persuaded to join in, but even a few letters might get ABC to reconsider the deliberately milquetoast "flavor" of ESPN's approach to anything potentially controversial, whether it pertains solely to blind zebras or other sports-only issues, or to big socio-political issues.

Are you up for this idea, Gibbs? Is anyone else? It doesn't require an particular type of political beliefs. You can be a Communist, a Nazi, or anything in between. All that's required is being fed up with the gutlessness of a certain endlessly self-aggrandizing network in Bristol, Connecticut.

I believe two of us are already in.

B.H.N.

count me in, as i do not watch much tv after football is over till the caytona 500 which is on another network i could handle it,

I'm in, I don't watch all that much TV anyway. I think you are calling for a letter writing campaign, right? That would be good, I think.

I wish that the other sports networks were able to compete with ESPN, but they seem to be more regionalized, and I for one don't necesarily like the teams in my region.