Friday, August 23, 1996

Latest Irvin run-in drives Cowboys' image down, Toyota's image up

By Frank Luksa
Dallas Morning News
(August 23, 1996)

DALLAS (KRT) - This probably won't catch on as a new advertising concept, but early returns look promising for area Toyota dealers. They may sell more cars by firing Michael Irvin as a television pitch man than they did by hiring him.

The ironic supposition is based on reaction to a $1.2 million damage suit that the North Texas Toyota Dealers Association filed this week against the Cowboys' receiver and his agents, Steve Endicott and George Bass. The Toyota folks also sought return of a $50,000 Land Cruiser free-loaned to Irvin and $60,000 they paid him for appearing in TV ads.

The plaintiffs assert that Irvin acted so naughty that their image and car sales suffered through the association. Hence, a breach of contract under a clause that forbade the spokesman from serious misbehavior. Left uncontested was what a fine and probation for felony possession of cocaine plus five-game suspension from the NFL did to Irvin's image.

Since the case went public two days ago, dealers have received unsolicited phone calls that for a welcome change were not offering a carpet-cleaning special. These calls and fax messages offered them support by a decisive margin.

The number of contacts is unknown, since no one thought to appoint a central counting house for the 12 dealerships involved. Switchboard operators took some calls themselves, routed others to sales managers or association lawyer Larry Friedman. A random survey of dealers found Toyota of Irving handling scores of incoming pro-Toyota traffic.

"It's been heavy duty, and most are backing Toyota. I was hoping it (the calls) would end today, but it hasn't," said a skittish operator there who declined to identify herself.

The opposite held true at Sport City Toyota on LBJ Freeway. Tammy, who answers its phones, had received only three related calls by early Thursday afternoon. All were pro-Irvin.

"They disagreed with how Toyota is dealing with it," she said.

Rational minds reel at Irvin's strategy in staging another legal cockfight for national consumption. And national it has gone. Friedman has been contacted by "The New York Times," "Wall Street Journal," USA Radio Network, The Associated Press and four local affiliates of the major TV networks. Coast-to-coast inquiries prove that nothing spreads faster than a stinky story, and once more Irvin was joined to the odor.

Good grief. Why wasn't the matter settled quietly? Was the since-returned loan vehicle and $60,000 worth more than inevitable re-cycle of Irvin's cocaine case, the motel scene, suspension terms and so on? Only one way does staging another legal cockfight make even remote logic: Irvin doesn't have $60,000 worth of reputation left.

So you wonder. How much longer will Irvin punish himself with self-inflicted injury to his name? He has been at it for the past five months in what can be described as a distinct lack of sensitivity. Or good sense.

It's possible for Irvin to inflict so much harm upon himself that someday he'll say enough. He will wish to play elsewhere in hope of finding a climate more forgiving of a fallen star. Of course, the climate here is not entirely hostile, as calls to Sport City Toyota indicate.

A segment of fans is always eager to forgive and forget because, after all, the player is one of ours and therefore blessed. The just-win-baby mentality prevails, and there's justification to their attitude that these guys aren't hired for qualities of citizenship.

I sense that dismay and disgust with the high incident of rotten behavior attached to the Cowboys represent the true, metallic-blue fan. He recognizes vanished traditions of a proud heritage. Victory with honor. Winning with class. An image linked with decency and dignity.

As inexact as the Toyota sampling may be, feedback from the majority suggests the pendulum of local opinion toward the Cowboys nears a scornful tilt. There are definite signs of fans saying they've had enough. They want be to proud of their team. But not to apologize for it.

Stink not only spreads. It contaminates. A few blight the many who suffer collective smear. Irvin is the ongoing centerpiece of embarrassment, but I suggest majority response in the Toyota incident was aimed at the Cowboys' locker room. The short version of the message: Clean it up.

I've reached a doleful conclusion about the Cowboys based on 30-odd years of tracking the franchise. This is the worst. The tar pit as it relates to image. There is less respect for these Cowboys as Super Bowl champions than their 1-15 team or those from the era of Next Year's Champions.

Teams that barely won or that didn't win the big one displeased because their players weren't good enough players. Today's team dismays because too many of its players aren't good enough people.

(Frank Luksa is a sports columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Write to him at: Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, Dallas, Texas 75265.)

(c) 1996, Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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