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By Charean Williams

cjwilliams@star-telegram.com


Michael Irvin kept Tim Brown from trying to return home to play for the Cowboys when Brown was a free agent in 1994.

Brown, who played at Dallas Woodrow Wilson High School, proposed to Irvin the idea of playing together with the Cowboys when the two were at the Pro Bowl. Brown said Irvin “boisterously declined.”

“I think it was the first year I made the Pro Bowl as a receiver, and I was a free agent going into that offseason, the offseason of ’94, and I ended up signing with the Broncos,” Brown said in a Pro Football Hall of Fame conference call Thursday. “I sort of happily walked up to Michael thinking it was going to be a great concept, and I said to him, ‘Hey, man, look, man, I’m thinking about coming home to Dallas. I would love to come there and be No. 2 to you.’ He got so upset. ‘Tim Brown, don’t you ever think about coming….’ I was like, ‘Mike, man, what’s going on?’ He was like, ‘No. I’m glad you told me first. I’m calling Jerry right now and telling him don’t do it.’ So that was pretty much the end of that conversation, and I was a little upset, because I did want to come home, and I wanted to play for the Cowboys. I’m glad that worked out the way it did for many reasons at this particular point. But yeah, that is a true story.”

Brown signed a four-year, $11 million deal with the Broncos in March 1994 that the Raiders matched. Brown ended up playing 16 of his 17 seasons with the Raiders, making 1,094 catches for 14,934 yards and 100 touchdowns in his career.

Irvin was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007 after making 750 catches for 11,904 yards and 65 touchdowns in his 12-year career in Dallas.

Alvin Harper was the Cowboys’ second-leading wideout in 1994, the year Dallas lost to San Francisco in the NFC Championship game. Harper made 33 catches for 821 yards and eight touchdowns that season before leaving for Tampa Bay in free agency. Brown had 89 receptions for 1,309 yards and seven touchdowns in ’94.

Read more here: Tim Brown says Michael Irvin didn’t want him as a Cowboys’ teammate | The Star Telegram
 
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I wonder if he means 1993 after we won the SB (february 94 PB). Or after we lost to San Fran in NFCCG, (feb 95 PB)

Either case, wonder what the story behind that was.
 
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Why would Tim brown lie about this?

And has Irvin even addressed, let alone denied this?
 
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Tim Brown: Michael Irvin didn't want me on the Cowboys

Tim Brown: Michael Irvin didn't want me on the Cowboys


Tim Brown and Michael Irvin playing on the same team? It sounds like a wide receiver match made in heaven.
That is, unless you're Irvin.
Brown, soon to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, said on a recent conference call with reporters that he brought up the idea of playing together with Irvin back in 1994.
"I was a free agent going into that offseason, the offseason of '94," Brown was quoted in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I sort of happily walked up to Michael thinking it was going to be a great concept.
"And I said to him, 'Hey, man, look, man, I'm thinking about coming home to Dallas. I would love to come there and be No. 2 to you."
Irvin's reaction shocked Brown.
"He got so upset," Brown said, quoting Irvin: "'Tim Brown, don't you ever think about coming...' I was like, 'Mike, man, what's going on?'"
Brown said Irvin, who was with him at the Pro Bowl at the time, vowed to call Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and tell him not to sign Brown.
"I was a little upset, because I did want to come home, and I wanted to play for the Cowboys," Brown said.
For Irvin, the numbers simply did add up for the Cowboys to sign another elite receiver.
"We were a run-oriented offense then and Troy (Aikman) was only completing 20 balls a game," Irvin later told The Dallas Morning News. "I got eight of those balls, Jay (Novacek) would get six, D.J. (Daryl Johnston) would get two out of the backfield, Emmitt (Smith) would get two. We were scrambling to get Alvin (Harper) and KW (Kevin Williams) some balls... Where was Tim going to get any balls?"
Irvin said it wasn't anything personal. Although having two future Hall of Fame receivers on the same team might work nowadays, Irvin said the Cowboys' offense at the time couldn't support it.
"It was just the reality," said Irvin, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007. "I love Tim... But I was just being flat-out real with him.
"We only have 20 passes, baby. There aren't that many balls to go around."
 

Statman

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I sometimes wonder how things would have gone if Jerry Jones hadn't played hardball with Jimmy Smith.

Smith was the Cowboy's 2nd round draft pick in the 1992 draft. He was 36th overall, Darren Woodsen was 37th overall.

Anyway, he developed appendicitis and missed the entire season in 1993. Jerry Jones refused to pay him, declaring it was a non-football injury. He was correct. However, in retrospect, he had helped players he didn't have to. If he had been a little more lenient perhaps Smith would have stayed.

Jimmy Smith ended his 12 year career with 862 passes for 12287 yards and 67 TD's, he is the Jaguars all time leading receiver to this day. His numbers are almost a mirror image of Michael Irvin's.
 
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Jimmy Smith became an addict in the small town of Jacksonville.

No way he pans out in the big city party area of Dallas.
 

bbgun

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Mike's ego could handle a fading Anthony Miller, but not local hero Brown. besides, we still had Harper under contract for one more year, so the timing wasn't right.
 
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