Irvin Wants Men To ‘Put Up Your Dukes’
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By HOWARD MANN
UPPER MARLBORO, Md – He has played Super Bowls and Orange Bowls and Fiesta Bowls and Sugar Bowls. But Michael Irvin, the NFL Hall of Famer and all-time great at the University of Miami, said none of those experiences rivaled what he felt in addressing more than 2,500 attendees at the 15th annual Mighty Men of Valor National Men’s Conference.
“I’ve played in front of hundreds of thousands of people and beat them down,” Irvin said. “There’s a power when you step on the field knowing you’re about to impose your will on another man. But there’s nothing like the power of standing here and being able to share.”
He didn’t hold anything back. Irvin shared his story of growing up as the 15th of 17 children in a Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) ghetto. He spoke of trying to find fulfillment through everything except God. He discussed the night he was busted in a hotel room with several women and loads of drugs. He reminisced on his final play in the NFL, which ended with him lying on the field unable to move.
Using I Samuel 30:1-8 for his text, Irvin read how David “strengthened himself in the Lord,” and entitled his message “Put Up Your Dukes.”
Once you stop doing those things and going to those places that you called fun when you were running with the Devil, now you have to put up your dukes,” he said. “Because now, the devil and all of his angels are fighting you. The devil didn’t have to fight you before because you were his buddy.”
Irvin tricked himself into thinking he was in control, enjoying football success each season while doing drugs and chasing women every offseason. He said he didn’t understand how people “get hooked;” he was just having fun. But when his career ended and football no longer filled half of the void, drugs and women took over fulltime.
“I was fooling myself all those years, thinking I’m controlling a controlled substance,” Irvin said. “There came a time when I said I’m going to stop ‘after this. This is my last week. My last Saturday.’ But I found myself back out there. I realized I’m not as strong as I thought I was. I had switched my addiction, trying to fill that hole.”
Irvin credited his wife for helping him finally yield to God. After his hotel-room escapade made national news in 1996, Irvin headed home. The news media was camped at his front door and helicopters hovered overhead. He was ready for a fight with his wife and planned to turn it against her, possibly walking out on the marriage.
“I started to open my mouth and she stopped me,” he said. “She said ‘Baby, you don’t have to say a word to me. Don’t worry about me. You have to make your peace with God.’ I’ll never forget that.”
Irvin remind attendees that as men, “we’re natural born fighters.” So men need to put up their dukes and fight.
