Sunday column: Heroes aren’t always perfect

It was a hot Saturday afternoon, the kind that smacks you in the face as you’re leaving your comfy air-conditioned house as if to say, “Why in the world are you coming out here?”
In other words, it was yesterday … if you’re reading this Sunday.
The heat was so much — add to this that I spent much of the day helping a friend move — that it fried my brain. Perhaps it was my fault for waiting until Saturday … but whatever the sun did to me, it kept me from coming up with an idea for a column.
Writer’s block, I suppose. I still blame the heat.
Then, sitting in my office at around 9 p.m. Saturday — tonight for those of you reading over my shoulder as I type this — I watched the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies to see one of my favorites, former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin, get inducted.
Then it became clear what to write about — heroes … and the fact that they don’t have to be perfect to become one.
Now, I received criticism from a friend the other day that I harp on football too much, even in the newspaper. I guess sports writing may have been my true calling, but we’ll never know.
But this isn’t about football, necessarily. The only part about football you’ll hear is that Michael Irvin was wide receiver and the vocal leader for a Cowboys team that won three Super Bowls in four years during the 1990s, a time when I lived but a short drive away from Texas Stadium.
Irvin’s numbers were phenomenal, and worthy of Hall of Fame numbers. But off the field, Michael Irvin was a mess.
Irvin was the ringleader of a Cowboys squad that was almost as famous for its arrests as it was its titles in the 90s. There was always talk of the White House, a Dallas home owned by one of Irvin’s teammates where some players gathered and did things that would eventually lead them to jail.
Irvin pleaded no contest to felony cocaine possession and was put on probation for four years after a March 1996 arrest. Police crashed his 30th birthday party and found him, marijuana, cocaine and strippers in a hotel room. He had more arrests in the years that followed.
Irvin was eligible for the Hall last year, but as a giant slap on the hand from the sports writers, they made him wait a year. He said Saturday night he was never really sure the day would ever come because of his troubles.
I loved watching Michael Irvin on Sundays, star on his helmet, heart on his sleeve. But as a fan, I was embarrassed by his actions Monday through Saturday. I never really thought of him as a hero like I did Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith as I was growing up.
Saturday night changed my perception of Irvin.
Tears streaming down his face, Irvin talked about how he told his boys to be like the men who were inducted into the Hall of Fame last year. He said it broke his heart that he couldn’t tell them to be like him.
“I tell you guys to always do the right thing so you can be a better role model than dad,” he said.
“Look up, get up, but don’t ever give up.”
There are role models I had growing up who had flaws, and there were times when those flaws changed my perception of them. I’ve seen in them, though, that people can change.
A lot of football fans think Michael Irvin is full of it, and for a long time, I was one of them. But Saturday night, I was reaffirmed that a person can change.
I believe Irvin is a man who has learned from his mistakes. It shows me that I can overcome my flaws, and it encourages me to stick by the people whose flaws could very well drive me away.
You don’t have to be perfect to be a hero. You just have to strive to be a better person.
I think Irvin’s on his way. I think that makes him a hero.
o
Billy Liggett is editor of The Sanford Herald. His column appears Sundays, and he can be reached by e-mail at bliggett@sanfordherald.com.