Michael Irvin was an iconic Miami Hurricanes wide receiver, setting several all-time program records and winning the 1987 national championship, but Irvin has become contemporarily known as an iconic Miami Hurricanes football fan.
The latter was never truer than during the 2025 season. Irvin was an animated fixture, to put it lightly, on the Hurricanes’ sideline as Miami tore through the College Football Playoff before narrowly losing to the undefeated Indiana Hoosiers in the 2026 College Football Playoff National Championship.
While at the 2026 NFL Combine in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Miami defensive end Rueben Bain Jr. visited with The Rich Eisen Show. Eisen asked Bain Jr. for his thoughts on Irvin. Bain jokingly responded, “Man, he’s a hell of a mentor, but that man is crazy.”
Irvin went viral repeatedly for his “BTA” celebration, so it’s unsurprising that the Pro Football Hall of Famer was devastated when his Hurricanes fell short of what would have been the football team’s first national championship since 2001.
“I was depressed after the game,” Irvin said on Cam’ron’s It Is What It Is podcast. “I’m not gonna lie. I was depressed. Everybody was calling me and said, ‘Man, let’s go out and party.’ I said, ‘I ain’t goin’ nowhere. I ain’t going no damn where. We just lost.'”
Irvin, who won three Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s, continued: “As I’m trying to leave the stadium, all the Indiana fans [said], ‘Mr. Irvin! Mr. Irvin, I’m a Cowboys fan! Can we take a picture?’ Hell, no! I ain’t taking no picture with y’all. It’s like jersey-swapping. I told you, I wasn’t going to jersey-swap with somebody, and I’m not going to give you a picture on this field, so you can remember whooping my ass. Are you crazy? Get on out of here with that. I just went back to my room, and I just went to sleep.”
Irvin should be pleased with the fact that nobody is sleeping on the Hurricanes as we approach April’s 2026 NFL Draft, including Bain Jr.
Mock drafts by the likes of CBS, ESPN, and The Athletic slate Miami products Bain Jr., offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa, defensive end Akheem Mesidor, and cornerback Mansoor Delane as first-round prospects.