Sports

When Do DeMarco Allegations Become Fair Game?

December 1, 2014 / 1:38 PM CST / CBS Texas

By Mike Fisher | @fishsports

IRVING (105.3 THE FAN) -- In the late-1990's, Michael Irvin immersed himself in big 'Can-I-Tell-You-Who-I-Am' trouble. Drugs and prostitutes and murder-for-hire plots.

That sort of trouble.

It was easy for a nation drunk on Cowboys Super Bowl success to write about and talk about Irvin … to speculate, joke and harangue from afar.

But Irvin made it even easier on me to write and talk about him … because of the frequency with which he talked to me, told me the salacious stories from his perspective, admitted guilt when he believed it was fitting and claimed innocence sometimes, too.

So I wrote about Michael Irvin and I talked about Michael Irvin, as I had pretty much done daily in the newspaper and on the radio starting in 1990, only post-Super Bowls the tone was obviously different.

But the access, for me, was the same. My readers and listeners therefore were permitted a vastly different picture than they were given elsewhere.

Because, by and large, it wasn't me and my coverage accusing Irvin of being out of control.

It was Irvin, in my coverage, admitting to being out of control.

I engaged Mac Engel in a spirited and thoughtful debate on Monday morning on 105.3 The Fan, where fact-based opinions presented in an entertaining way are encouraged by the management and, I believe, appreciated by the Fan Fans.

Mac insisted that DeMarco Murray's personal life — and this is the height of "personal'' as his former Oklahoma Sooners teammate Brennan Clay went public Sunday on Twitter with charges that Murray allegedly had an affair with his wife -- is not fair game for us media vultures.

Clay's tweets were quickly picked up by news sites such as the New York Post and Deadspin.

[tweet https://twitter.com/BrennanClay24/status/539120506432397313 width='330']

My perspective? It's impossible for you to play for the Dallas Cowboys and be the NFL's leading rusher and an MVP candidate and somehow expect the audience and its conduit (the media) to ignore such a tale …

And not because it's so sordid, but rather, because it's news in the sense that it may (or may not) impact the on-field performance of Murray and his Cowboys.

I certainly recognize how sensitive this matter is. Sensitive in regard to won/lost records? Sure. Sensitive because we're talking about big-money reputations here? Sensitive because children are involved? Absolutely.

But I believe there is a way to do this sensitively and thoughtfully, especially if I let internet hacks handle the jokes (and there will be jokes) while I stay in my lane:

If a player's personal life is impacting his on-field life, it inches closer to being news of an important sort.

Irvin is Exhibit A for me, because his alleged crimes were high-profile and he was a future Hall-of-Fame player with three Super Bowl rings. But there are hundreds of cases in my career that I can refer to when a public figure was in trouble or turmoil … and a journalistic decision of ethics had to be made.

If I was a PR advisor, I'd tell DeMarco of my belief that it's helpful for the public figure to address the issue out front; quicker it's addressed, quicker the vultures move onto another hunk of meat.

But that is assuredly not DeMarco's style. He is only begrudgingly cooperative with the media as it is. There will be little insight offered by him, I am sure.

Which will leave the Fan Fan wondering: Did he miss that block, fumble that ball, drop that pass, lose that game ... because of off-the-field nastiness?

And when you ask yourself that question — and you will, because at some point there will be a missed block or a lost game — you will suddenly find yourself reaching that point when you, too, inch toward "fair game.''

Thinking, wondering, speculating.

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