Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin had a story to tell, and there has been no report yet whether it elicited a response from former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson.
The former Cowboys great conjured up a story from his past this week that involved Super Bowl XXVII between Dallas and Buffalo and pop legend Michael Jackson, who performed at the halftime show. It seemed while the rest of the Cowboys were making halftime adjustments, Irvin had another plan with his team leading 28-10.
He wanted to see Jackson perform by any means necessary. He joined The Rich Eisen Show this week to tell the secret tale.
"Look," Irvin began with a huge grin on his face. "Jimmy Johnson was trying to talk about game planning and everything, and we're sitting here like, 'Come on, coach.' And then half of us are sneaking out the back going to watch Michael Jackson.
"It's Michael Jackson!"
Eisen, however, wanted to be clear about what he just heard. Did Irvin really just admit to leaving the locker room during the Super Bowl to watch a performance?
"Absolutely," Irvin said. "I thought about it a couple weeks ago when we were talking about [Steelers wide receiver] Antonio Brown 'violating the sanctity of the locker room while a coach was talking.' Then I said, 'Michael, did you ever do that?'
"Well, does sneaking out of the locker room to watch a halftime show count? That's what I talk about, because I wanted to go see Michael Jackson. That was the moment."
It remains to be seen whether Johnson was aware his All-Pro receiver had disappeared during one of the most important games in franchise history. It also turned out to be arguably the best halftime performance of all time by the greatest performer of all time as the Cowboys went on to defeat the Bills 52-17.
Help from above?
Actor Morgan Freeman is a huge Ole Miss basketball fan. He even sits courtside at home games at The Pavilion.
He's willing to go as far as grab an opposing player's shorts to help his team. The actor, who once played God in Bruce Almighty, did this during an inbounds play Tuesday night in a game between the Rebels and Mississippi State.
"Hey, Morgan Freeman. You're not supposed to do that. But we'll give you a pass this time," Mississippi State men's basketball tweeted.
The Ole Miss men's basketball Twitter account was quick to return the tweet.
"We definitely don't encourage that behavior @HailStateMBK ... but who are we to question the guy who plays God?
Five-star heart
Speaking to a group of fans at Nashville's Nissan Stadium, Tennessee football Coach Butch Jones discussed a class in which his program finished 17th nationally but sixth in the SEC, per the 247Sports Composite Rankings, stating he didn't care about how many stars a recruit has.
"We've spoken about the competitive nature, and I think that's really, really big in today's world," said Jones, according to GoVols247. "Everyone gets into the whole two-star, three-star, four-star, five-star thing. The only five star that we even concern ourselves with is a five-star heart.
"We want five-star hearts and five-star competitors."
Sports on 02/04/2017