Michael Irvin is a Hall of Fame wide receiver, which gives him instant credibility when providing insight for NFL Network into what separates great players from mediocre ones and what those athletes might be thinking on the field.
But does his Hall of Fame pedigree qualify him to explain offensive line play? According to Irvin, offensive lineman have it easy. They’re fat men who just have to keep their opponent in front of them for three seconds. So in his view, there’s no excuse why someone like Dallas Cowboys lineman Chaz Green should have let Adrian Clayborn blow by him for six sacks last week in the Atlanta Falcons’ 27-7 win last Sunday.
“This is about a man-to-man battle,” Irvin said on “NFL Gameday Morning.” “I know you guys talk about offensive linemen being athletes and all that. I always say this to the kids that I coach: Playing offensive line is as easy as anything. You’re 300 pounds, he’s 300 pounds — stay in front of him for three seconds and you, one day, can get 300 million dollars!”
In Irvin’s words, playing offensive line is not an athletic situation. Prompted by fellow analyst Steve Mariucci to demonstrate, Irvin got up from the studio desk to show how an offensive lineman’s job works. Irvin then takes two shuffle steps back into a blocking stance and sticks his arms out.
“Stay here for three seconds,” Irvin yelled. “Three seconds!”
Here’s a clip:
“It ain’t that hard of a job!” said the former Cowboys receiver as the Gameday Morning studio crew cracked up at his demonstration.
Considering he mentioned it twice, Irvin might be a little jealous that offensive linemen can make, as he put it, “300 million dollars” if they do their job right. They don’t have to run down the field and get hit like wide receivers. And maybe there was some resentment that linemen don’t have to be physical specimens too.
“These are fat men standing in front of each other” he yelled. “Doing a fat man’s dance!”
Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman tweeted to “Gameday Morning” host Rich Eisen, saying to tell Irvin what a great segment that was. Eisen responded by revealing Irvin had that riff ready in the preshow meeting.
you should have seen him in the show meeting. He did it almost word for word as you saw and we all knew we had to get that on television.
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) November 19, 2017
We’ll have to wait and see if any current or former NFL offensive linemen respond to Irvin the way Steve Smith did after the analyst made fun of his pants.
