IIRC, Irvin himself said this. He felt he cost the team another Super Bowl.
I agree. I love the guy. I love how he turned his life around....but the distraction the next season, the fact that he missed five games due to suspension, and the fact that we passed on Randy because of him, cost us a realistic shot at another Super Bowl.
Leon Lett's suspension was a bigger factor in the 1996 season. Lett was having a great season that year (his stats didn't reflect it, but the defense played at a high level without Charles Haley and effectively, without a great pass rush). Without Lett, the run defense suffered big time against Carolina.
Micheal Irvin' arrest during the 96 off season was the beginning of the end of the great 90's team. It lead to him missing the first 5 games and the Cowboys lost 3 of those games. The Cowboys had put together 3 straight 12-4 seasons leading up to this year and likely could have forced the Panthers to play on the road where the 2nd year expansion team wouldn't have been so comfortable. A win in that game would have led to a game with the Super Bowl bound Packers, a team that the Cowboys had owned in the playoffs for the 3 previous years.
It's possible that Irvin' birthday party cost a SB, then cost Barry Switzer his Job the next year because with a SB win he doesn't get fired the following year. That party also caused the Cowboys to pass on Randy Moss who would have still have had Troy Aikman for 3 more years and most definitely would have been a huge factor for the Cowboys in the next couple years while they still had a potent defense ranking in the top 10 in points allowed in 98 and 99. Passing on Moss also led to the deal for Joey Galloway as the Cowboys struggled to find a replacement for Irvin, a deal that used 2 first round picks for a guy that played one game his first year.
Micheal Irvin' arrest during the 96 off season was the beginning of the end of the great 90's team. It lead to him missing the first 5 games and the Cowboys lost 3 of those games. The Cowboys had put together 3 straight 12-4 seasons leading up to this year and likely could have forced the Panthers to play on the road where the 2nd year expansion team wouldn't have been so comfortable. A win in that game would have led to a game with the Super Bowl bound Packers, a team that the Cowboys had owned in the playoffs for the 3 previous years.
It's possible that Irvin' birthday party cost a SB, then cost Barry Switzer his Job the next year because with a SB win he doesn't get fired the following year. That party also caused the Cowboys to pass on Randy Moss who would have still have had Troy Aikman for 3 more years and most definitely would have been a huge factor for the Cowboys in the next couple years while they still had a potent defense ranking in the top 10 in points allowed in 98 and 99. Passing on Moss also led to the deal for Joey Galloway as the Cowboys struggled to find a replacement for Irvin, a deal that used 2 first round picks for a guy that played one game his first year.
There certainly are a lot of repercussions to that birthday party no doubt. Probably the biggest is the fact that we passed up Randy Moss in large part due to the Irvin fiasco. This did inevitably lead to us giving up two first round picks for Joey Galloway.
I don't believe Micheal Irvin getting arrested cost us a Super Bowl, but I do think it accelerated our downward spiral that led to Jerry hiring Bill Parcells.
Might as well blame him for the current playoff drought as well. I'm sure he had something to do do with Romos back and why is he getting a pass on the RW11 trade?
A lot more was invloved than Irvin, many other players had issues too over several years. Free Agency hurt the most from 93 to 96.
What cost us a possible SB, was the arm bar Sanders had on Irvin, that wasn't called, then Switzer's arguing, and I think he bumped a ref, so instead of a 1st down or even a TD, they were moved back 15 yards.
Troy Aikman said that was the best and most competitive game he ever played in.
Its called counter-factual history and it isn't intellectually lazy at allmore useless and rather intellectually lazy speculation. Bottom line is that the team was going downhill and nothing was going to stop that.
I dont think there is any way to know OP.
If we werent good enough to beat Carolina even at their place we prob werent good enough to have won the Super Bowl that year.
It would have been very hard to beat GB at Lambeau in January. We got man handled there the following season 45-17 or something.
I don't know. I'll ask him when I'm done thanking him for the 3 he gave us.
Micheal Irvin' arrest during the 96 off season was the beginning of the end of the great 90's team. It lead to him missing the first 5 games and the Cowboys lost 3 of those games. The Cowboys had put together 3 straight 12-4 seasons leading up to this year and likely could have forced the Panthers to play on the road where the 2nd year expansion team wouldn't have been so comfortable. A win in that game would have led to a game with the Super Bowl bound Packers, a team that the Cowboys had owned in the playoffs for the 3 previous years.
It's possible that Irvin' birthday party cost a SB, then cost Barry Switzer his Job the next year because with a SB win he doesn't get fired the following year. That party also caused the Cowboys to pass on Randy Moss who would have still have had Troy Aikman for 3 more years and most definitely would have been a huge factor for the Cowboys in the next couple years while they still had a potent defense ranking in the top 10 in points allowed in 98 and 99. Passing on Moss also led to the deal for Joey Galloway as the Cowboys struggled to find a replacement for Irvin, a deal that used 2 first round picks for a guy that played one game his first year.
I don't know. I'll ask him when I'm done thanking him for the 3 he gave us.
If we win 2 of the first 5 games with Irvin playing we're in position to be 13-3 by beating the Commanders in the last game of the season forcing Carolina and GB to beat the Cowboys at home in the playoffs. They were both very good teams that year but home field would have been huge especially for the game against the Packers who the Cowboys had already beat once that year.