It just seems that the words NFL player, woman and hotel are almost never good to hear. The latest allegation doesn't involve a current NFL player, but a great former player. Michael Irvin, formerly of the Dallas Cowboys, was arrested for a rape that allegedly occurred two years ago. A woman claims that Irvin and another man raped her at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., on July 4, 2007.

The woman's original report was filed on July 20, 2007. For reasons unknown, the woman signed a waiver of petition shortly after the incident occurred. Larry Friedman, Michael Irvin's attorney, claims that the recent allegation is a plot to embarrass Irvin and extort money from him. The woman alleges that Irvin and another man got her drunk, took her to a hotel room and then demanded sex. She then told authorities that she was raped when she refused to have sex.

"Nothing happened. There was no encounter between this Jane Doe and Michael Irvin," Friedman said. "The entire story is false, it's bogus, it's made up."

The big question here is "why now?" If this allegedly happened in 2007, it would seem that 2007 would have been the time to pursue these allegations. At the same time, 60 percent of all rapes go unreported, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. So no one seems to know what happened, and the evidence will tell a better story.

It's hard to tell what happened here. All we know is that like his fellow Miami Hurricane Warren Sapp, Michael Irvin has a whole lot of explaining to do. Given that Irvin also does a great deal of analysis for NFL games, it would seem that this was a bad day for his network as well. These stories never seem to stop coming.


Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.