Michael Jerome Irvin is an American sports commentator and former professional football player who spent his entire 12-year career as a wide receiver with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). Widely considered to be one of the greatest wide receivers of all time, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007.
Irvin played college football for the Miami Hurricanes and was selected in the first round of the 1988 NFL draft by the Cowboys. He played for the Cowboys from 1988 to 1999 before sustaining a cervical fracture of his spine in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles, in which he was carted off the field and transported to a Philadelphia hospital, forcing him to retire.
Irvin was nicknamed "the Playmaker" due to his penchant for making big plays in big games during his college and pro careers, and he relished the nickname, even acquiring "PLY MKR" as his Texas vanity license plate] Along with Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith, Irvin was one of three key Cowboys offensive players known as "The Triplets", who led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins in 1992, 1993, and 1995.
Irvin is a former broadcaster for ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown and currently an analyst for NFL Network. In 2009, he competed in Season 9 of Dancing with the Stars and was the season's ninth contestant to be eliminated. He was one of the co-hosts of the FS1 weekday debate show Speak with Paul Pierce, Keyshawn Johnson, and Joy Taylor.
