IRVIN IS APOLOGETIC FOR LEGAL PROBLEMS

GRAPEVINE - Flanked by his wife and his attorney, former Cowboys receiver
Michael Irvin apologized to his fans and thanked God for delivering him
from a drug charge that was tainted by faulty police work.

"Make no mistake about it, I shouldn't have been in that apartment," Irvin
said. "I have no doubt we would have won, but quite honestly, God stepped in."

Irvin said that he has not decided whether to pursue a civil case and that
he has forgiven the officers who handcuffed him. But his attorney said the
police violated the Constitution by searching the apartment without a warrant.

"This is not a technicality. ... What happened to Michael is unforgivable,"
said Peter Ginsberg, Irvin's attorney.

Police and FBI agents from an area drug task force were staking out the
apartment in south Denton County in August 2000, looking for a drug suspect
who had violated her probation, Ginsberg said.

The task force officers broke down the door after learning that Irvin was
inside and proceeded to "basically ransack" the apartment for hours while
Irvin lay on the floor in handcuffs, Ginsberg said.

Rhonda Adaham, the woman named in the arrest warrant, was not in the
apartment, but police arrested Irvin on suspicion of misdemeanor marijuana
possession after finding a marijuana cigarette in an ashtray. Rhonda
Adaham's sister, Nellie Adaham, was also arrested on suspicion of marijuana
possession.

Police did not smell marijuana in the apartment, and never tested Irvin to
determine whether he had been using drugs, court documents state.

"All they had was an arrest warrant for a woman who did not live there,"
Ginsberg said.

About 11 months later, in June 2001, Irvin and Nellie Adaham were indicted
on a count of felony possession of cocaine after Irvin's fingerprints were
found on a dinner plate in the apartment that had cocaine on it, Ginsberg said.

On Monday, a district judge honored a request by the Denton County district
attorney's office to dismiss the charges against Irvin and Nellie Adaham.

The state said it had learned that the task force officers had apparently
misled prosecutors. The officers said the drugs were found in plain view,
when they were found during a warrantless search, according to a court filing.

Also, prosecutors were unable to contact three of the officers because they
were subjects of internal affairs investigations at three police agencies,
Assistant District Attorney Lee Ann Breading said.

She said the officers were not being investigated in the Irvin case.

"It would be improper for any police agency to bring us facts that were not
true, or to testify to those facts or to testify to a grand jury. We have
not made any inquiry into that area," Breading said.

The officers were members of the Collin/Denton Counties Drug Task Force,
which was based in the FBI office in Plano.

The task force was credited with breaking up a heroin ring linked to the
deaths of four Plano teen-agers in 1997. The group is now known as the
North Central Texas Narcotics Task Force.

The task force also arrested traffickers who provided a lethal dose of
heroin for former Cowboys offensive lineman Mark Tuinei in 1999, FBI
spokeswoman Lori Bailey said. She declined to say whether any of the task
force's FBI agents had been investigated or disciplined.

Ginsberg said the task force officers had been involved in other cases with
tainted evidence, and one has since been fired because of an unrelated
matter. He would not name any of the officers because some work undercover.

"This is a publicly financed task force. I'm disappointed that the
authorities aren't willing to disclose to the public what their law
enforcement agents have been up to," Ginsberg said.

Irvin had just finished probation for a 1996 felony drug conviction when he
was arrested. The arrest cost him a lucrative job as a football analyst for
Fox Sports Net cable network.

Irvin said he has had difficulty working since the arrest. "It was hard to
focus," he said. "I didn't even know if I was going to be free."

Irvin declined to say how he knew Nellie Adaham, but added, "I was
unfaithful to my wife. I broke that covenant."

After the arrest, Irvin said, he went through a "period of depression" that
only broke when he and his wife, Sandi, spent Valentine's Day reading the
Bible and praying.

Irvin said he was at home reading the book of Job when his lawyer told him
that the charges had been dropped against him and Nellie Adaham.

As for the future, Irvin said he has not had time to think about it.

"I know a network that could use him," Ginsberg said.