Tuesday, August 18, 1998

End is near in McIver-Irvin incident

By Clarence E. Hill Jr. and Kevin Lyons

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

The Everett McIver-Michael Irvin saga appears to be over.

League officials said Monday it had concluded its nearly weeklong inquiry into the July 29 incident, which left McIver with a 2-inch cut on his neck. The league found no evidence with which to take discplinary action.

The Dallas Cowboys had said the incident stemmed from "horseplay." Sources with knowledge of the incident have told the "Star-Telegram" Irvin inflicted the wound with a scissors.

The league's investigation also refuted a published report that team owner Jerry Jones had brokered '0payment between Irvin and McIver for McIver's silence.

"We looked into the reports of a payoff and found no evidence of any deal," league spokesman Greg Aiello said.

In a statement, Jones said Monday's events should provide proper closure.

"From the standpoint of the organization, this matter is closed," Jones said. "Today's statements from Everett McIver and the NFL office should provide proper closure for everyone as far as the matter is concerned."

League security representative Ben Nix conducted the inquiry by talking with Irvin, McIver and Jones, Aiello said. Nix also talked to several other members of the Cowboys who were thought to have witnessed the incident, Aiello said. But the league would not release the names of those questioned.

COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF: 19 DAYS

Although soccer is the country's most popular sport, Monday night's preseason game between the New England Patriots and the Cowboys was not foreign to the fans of Mexico.

Football has been played in the country since the late 1800s, when American oil workers, Christian clubs and other groups from the United States played games against one another.

Organized college football began in Mexico during the 1920s, and it is estimated that more than 2.5 million Mexican youth, between the ages of 5-14, play football today. For teens and adults, there are 24 football associates, consisting of 150,000 players on 4,200 teams.

Earlier this year, NFL International launched a pilot NFL flag football program, "NFL Tochito," in 30 private elementary and middle schools throughout Mexico City. Nearly 3,000 boys and girls participated in the pilot program this summer.

NFL International expects to reach nearly 30,000 youngsters when it launches a national flag football program throughout Mexico in September. The NFL also is introducing flag football programs in Canada and Japan.

MILLS' DROUGHT ENDS

Cowboys receiver Ernie Mills can catch the ball after all.

Mills, who is battling Billy Davis for the No. 2 receiver spot, started the first two preseason games and did not catch a pass.

Monday night, the Cowboys started Davis in front of Mills for the first time and Mills answered the challenge with two receptions.

Davis, however, had the team's biggest play of the first half, making a 23-yard reception to set up the Cowboys' lone score of the game, a 41-yard field goal by Richie Cunningham.REPLAY, REPLAY

Monday night's game was one of 10 this summer that the league used as an experiment for instant replay.

And instant replay came into play on the second-to-last play of the first half.

Patriots coach Pete Carroll used one of his two challenges to question an official's call, ruling that Cowboys wide receiver Billy Davis got two feet inbounds on a 23-yard pass from quarterback Jason Garrett.

Game officials watched on-field replays of the play on video after Carroll's challenge, and found Davis, indeed, did get two feet inbounds.

At the league owners' meetings in March, the league did not have enough votes to implement instant replay for the regular season.TV OR NOT TV

President Clinton's speech to the American people regarding his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky had an indirect effect on the fans' mood during the game.

ABC, which was doing the game, pre-empted its broadcast to bring viewers President Clinton's address to the nation. While ABC had its cameras trained on Clinton, ABC's sister station, ESPN2, carried the game.

Of course ABC had several commitments it had to keep to advertisers whose commercials were not aired on ABC during Clinton's address. To do that, the league agreed to several fourth-quarter game-stoppages for television timeouts.

During those timeouts, when players from both sides stood around waiting for an official's signal to begin play, the fans whistled and generally made as much noise as possible. The slowdown in play added to the festive mood for many of the 106,424 in attendance.

MERRY MARTOS

Mexican player Marco Martos, who the Cowboys signed to go along with the league's publicity stunt for this American Bowl game, was one of the few Cowboys who got a standing ovation. Martos got a rousing cheer when he was the last Cowboys player introduced before the game. And Martos caught two passes to end the game, drawing another rousing ovation. His 15 minutes of fame likely will end soon when the Cowboys put him on the waiver list.BRIEFLY

-Running backs Chris Warren (groin strain) and Emmitt Smith (thigh bruise) were held out of Monday night's game for precautionary reasons. Rookie Tarik Smith started at tailback.

-Defensive tackle Leon Lett (sprained knee), cornerback Deion Sanders (fractured rib), defensive Kavika Pittman (sprained ankle) and deep snapper Dale Hellestrae (death in family) did not travel with the team to Mexico City.

-Defensive tackle Antonio Anderson started in place of Lett, Herman Smith replaced Pittman, Kevin Mathis subbed for Sanders, rookie free agent Denny Fortney handled the deep snapping on punts and Steve Scifres snapped on field goals.

(c) 1998, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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