The hotel at the center of Michael Irvin’s defamation case is refusing to provide surveillance footage of an alleged incident involving the former NFL wide receiver days before Super Bowl LVII.
An attorney for Irvin said in a new interview that he is “mad as hell” that Marriott International missed a judge’s deadline to provide the video evidence by Feb. 20, Chicago Tribune reports.
According to the Dallas Morning News, a woman claims she had a disturbing encounter with Irvin earlier this month in the lobby of the Phoenix Marriott in Arizona. The allegation prompted the NFL Network to drop him from hosting coverage of Super Bowl LVII.
Irvin has said he is “a bit baffled” by the woman’s claims as he does not know what he did or said wrong.
READ MORE: Judge Orders Hotel to Turn Over Footage Related to Michael Irvin Misconduct Allegation
“Honestly, I’m a bit baffled with it all,” Irvin told the publication. “This all happened in a 45-second conversation in the lobby. When I got back after going out . . . I came into the lobby, and I talked to somebody. I talked to this girl. I don’t know her, and I talked to her for about 45 seconds.”
Irvin has filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against the people connected to the complaint.
Irvin’s lawyer, Levi McCathern, told The Dallas Morning News that he has not yet seen the video nor has he received the names of the people who issued the complaint.
“I’m mad as hell that they’re hiding this stuff that is so relevant to my client’s livelihood. I think it is terrible they’re doing that,” McCathern said. “I don’t know what’s on the video. None of us have gotten to see it. But I sure think that, at a minimum, Michael has got a right to see the video.”
Irvin told 105.3 The Fan that he didn’t initially remember the encounter with the woman because “I had a few drinks, to tell you the truth.”
“I don’t really recall that conversation, to tell you the truth,” Irvin told the Morning News earlier this month. “We were out drinking. It was just a friendly conversation. ‘What’s up?’ I don’t even know. … I am totally perplexed.”
Irvin said he went to his hotel room and slept after the brief conversation with his accuser, and insists “there was no sexual wrongdoing,” The Washington Post reports.
The defamation lawsuit accuses Marriott of wrongful interference in a business relationship, according to reports.
