Judge grants Michael Irvin's request for video footage of Phoenix hotel incident

A judge in Texas has granted Michael Irvin’s request to obtain the video footage of last month’s incident at a Phoenix hotel. Marriott has until Tuesday to present the video after Irvin filed a request for an expedited discovery, according to the order.

“The discovery that [Irvin] seeks is narrow and unlikely to be particularly burdensome on Marriott,” U.S. District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant wrote, via Front Office Sports’ A.J. Perez. “Indeed, [Irvin’s] request is limited to surveillance footage and written reports, all of which likely exist in a readily accessible format.”

Irvin is facing a misconduct allegation by an employee from the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel after the Feb. 5 incident. The Dallas Cowboys legend was suspended as a result and didn’t appear on ESPN prior to the Super Bowl. Marriott previously filed to dismiss the lawsuit, but Mazzant said the company’s “limited participation in court-ordered discovery does not demonstrate its intent to litigate the underlying merits of the case in this court.”

In addition, Mazzant noted the privacy issues regarding the employee Marriott pointed out in its response.

“The Court does … find that Marriott’s concern for the privacy of the hotel employee who allegedly reported [Irvin’s] misconduct is well founded,” Mazzant wrote. “Thus, the Court will allow Marriott to redact the employee’s name from any written reports and to take reasonable measures to protect the employee’s identity as necessary at this early stage of the case.”

Irvin maintains that he remembered shaking the woman’s hand and meeting her, but that he did nothing that was inappropriate or that warranted the hotel’s response. As a result of the incident, Irvin was pulled off of Super Bowl coverage for NFL Network — prompting him to file a lawsuit against the hotel.

“Marriott filed to dismiss Michael Irvin’s $100 mil defamation, tortious interference suit, noting it leases its brand to but does not own the Phoenix hotel where Irvin allegedly made ‘harassing and inappropriate’ comments to a hotel worker Super Bowl week,” explained The Athletic‘s Daniel Kaplan.

On3’s Austin Brezina contributed to this report.