Michael Irvin has faced plenty of criticism and even court visits over his controversial lifestyle away from football. But nothing stirred more debate than his infamous “White House.”
For those unaware, this wasn’t a government building, but a house he bought near the Cowboys’ training ground. To outsiders, it quickly became a symbol of everything wild about the ’90s Cowboys.
Inside, teammates partied with women, consumed dr*gs, and lived like rock stars while still showing up to dominate on Sundays. Irvin recently recalled the moment when team owner Jerry Jones found out about the place.
When Jerry Jones Asked Irvin About the White House
In a recent appearance on Club Shay Shay, Irvin revisited one of the most infamous chapters of his Cowboys career, and the day Jerry Jones discovered the notorious “White House.”
Irvin explained how teammate Leon Lett tried to warn him two weeks earlier, telling him they were about to get exposed. But the real moment of truth came when Irvin sat in a meeting and his boss called him.
Jones wasted no time. “He said, ‘Michael, there’s a story breaking about some house y’all got over here somewhere, a White House.’” Irvin admitted his heart sank. “I said, ‘Oh, shit.’ I thought about that. I said, ‘I should have shut down.’”
Irvin said that he knew that a few people dimed it out to Jerry. “When he asked me though I aint got no answer… And he said, ‘Just be honest with me. You know, I’mma be with you. I’ll fight for you as long as you’re honest.’ And I thought about it and I just told him.”
When pressed, Irvin gave a response that summed up the Cowboys’ mindset at the time: “Boss, we were trying to do the wrong thing in the right way.” It was classic Irvin, bold honesty about the chaos behind one of football’s wildest locker rooms.
Why Irvin Bought the White House
Michael Irvin laid it all out when explaining how the notorious White House came to be, and in many ways, his story sums up the entire controversy. He admitted it started out with hotel rooms, where he and his teammates would spend big money just to have a place to party.
As Irvin explained, “The White House was the end game… So it went from the hotel. Man, do you know how much money we spending on the hotel? Then let’s just get an apartment. And then we got apartment.”
But the apartment wasn’t the safe hideout he hoped it would be. The noise drew too much attention. “Then you know, you bring a few girls over the apartment … they got over there making all this kind of noise and screaming, what’s going on?”
That’s when Irvin knew they needed something bigger. “I said, maybe we shouldn’t be in apartment building. So, then we got a house to try to move that thing.”
It was a bold solution that captured exactly who the Cowboys were at the time: chaotic off the field but untouchable on Sundays.