Dallas Cowboy suspended first 4 games of season for second straight year
For the second year in a row, the Dallas Cowboys will be without the services of defensive end David Irving to start the season.
Last year in June, Irving was popped for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
Irving appears to have avoided PEDs this time, but he still violated the league’s policy on substance abuse. On Friday, the NFL suspended him for the first four games of the 2018 season.
The suspension comes just one day after Irving said he planned on dropping 18 pounds before the season begins. Now he will have an extra four weeks to drop the weight and he’ll be eligible to return in Week 5.
Cowboys DL David Irving says he weighs around 303 pounds but wants to get down to around 285 pounds for the season. Said he wants to get back to that weight when "he was doing that underwear modeling and stuff. Got to get those abs back."
— Brandon George (@DMN_George) June 14, 2018
This continues a busy offseason for a player who finished second on the team with seven sacks last season despite playing in just eight games.
Irving became a restricted free agent after the 2017 season and signed his one-year tender in April for $2.91 million.
A week later, WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that Irving was being investigated for domestic violence. He wasn’t arrested but he was accused of assault and unlawful restraint.
Just a week after that, Irving’s girlfriend retracted the allegations and said he never put his hands on her. Frisco, Texas, police closed Irving’s domestic violence case in May.
Irving will be allowed to participate in training camp and in preseason games, but will then be placed on the suspended list on Sept. 1 when rosters are trimmed to 53 players.
This suspension comes at the absolute worst time for Irving as he will enter unrestricted free agency following the 2018 season.
He will have two suspensions for two different violations on his record, and he may have to settle for a one-year “prove it” type deal in order to rehabilitate his image before looking for a long-term contract.
Irving becomes the first Cowboys player to be suspended for the 2018 season, but he was one of 11 players suspended during the 2017 season.
Along with Irving’s PED suspension, Damontre Moore and Shaquelle Evans were suspended for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
Ezekiel Elliott was infamously suspended three different times last season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. The first two were upheld, and Elliott finally decided to accept the suspension after it was reinstated a second time.
Irving is the fourth player in the NFL to be suspended this offseason for substance abuse, but he’s the only one who was docked for four games as the other three (Donald Stephenson, Josh Huff and Demetrius Harris) were all suspended either one or two games.
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