Michael Irvin was a part of some of the biggest partying teams in football history – the Miami Hurricanes of the 1980s and the Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s.
Irvin appeared on Barstool Sports’ “Pardon My Take” podcast last week and talked about his partying habits and when he would make time for that life in between training for football. He added that it was OK to have fun but an issue could be created when “the problem has you.”
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“For all of my life, I could do all of these things — partying, having fun, catching women, out drinking, doing all of that stuff. But I did it up till March. My birthday is March 5. The second weekend in March is when we started back training. So I would always have a blast, have one big-time party. Wild out girls, getting high, everything. And then after that, I started training. And I never did anything while I was training," he said.
He likened the partying to team-bonding sessions and said he got his wake-up call when he decided to retire from football.
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“Where I got lost in the partying is when I retired. When I retired and I go through February, I’m getting high and having a great time, and then March comes around, and I’m still having a good time. And then April comes around, and I said, ‘OK, enough of this. I gotta get focused on what I’m gonna do next. I’m no longer playing football.’ In all the years prior to that, I was always able to stop. But now, I could not stop. I had to get some counseling on it and find out what it was. I was switching addictions from playing football,” he said.
Irvin played three years at Miami before turning pro. He was a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time Super Bowl champion and was later inducted into the Hall of Fame.
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He played for the Cowboys for his entire pro career.
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