Irvin Says NFL Is Investigating Him : Pro football: Ram cornerback says league’s security office is looking into his link with boxing figure Harold Smith.
LeRoy Irvin, 10-year veteran cornerback of the Rams, said that the NFL’s security office is investigating his relationship with boxing figure Harold Smith.
“Yeah, they’re out to get me,” Irvin said this week. “It’s because Harold’s my friend, I guess. It’s all being coordinated by the L.A. office of the (California) Athletic Commission.
“They (the Athletic Commission) want Smith out of boxing and they’re trying to do it by coming after me.”
Smith was a high-rolling boxing promoter of a decade ago who ran a boxing promotion firm, Muhammad Ali Professional Sports (MAPS). Then, in a 1981 case involving Wells Fargo Bank, Smith was convicted on 29 counts of embezzlement, conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen securities.
Prosecuting U.S. attorneys at the time called it the largest bank embezzlement case in U.S. history at $21.3 million. Smith was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $30,000. He was paroled in November, 1988, from the Boron Federal Prison Camp after serving a little more than half his sentence.
Irvin was the promoter of record of a boxing card at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium that featured heavyweights Tony Tubbs and Orlin Norris Nov. 21. But commission staff members from Los Angeles and the state believe Smith was the behind-the-scenes promoter.
Smith is Tubbs’ manager, and Smith’s wife, Lee Smith, was the event coordinator at the show.
Irvin, who has said he wants to be a boxing promoter when his football career ends, was issued a one-show-only state promoter’s license by the commission in October. He is expected to apply for a regular license at season’s end.
Irvin has hinted he will retire from football after the season.
“That’s a good possibility,” he said. “If I do, then nobody in the NFL is going to care (about Harold Smith) in three weeks.”
It is not certain what action, if any, the NFL would take, or on what grounds, but no action is expected during postseason play.
NFL spokesman Dick Maxwell said it was league policy not to comment on specific security investigations.
“We’d never say anything specific about an individual player, but from time to time the league is asked to look into backgrounds of individuals who are associated with an NFL player or a team,” he said.
Irvin said: “The commission guy (Don Muse, assistant executive officer) in the L.A. office--he’s been telling people they want Harold out of boxing. Otherwise, why would they come after me? I don’t have a record. It’s because Harold’s my friend. I’ve been trying to get a (promoter’s) license so long . . . “
Smith, however, was issued his California manager’s license by the Athletic Commission’s Los Angeles office. The matter was handled quietly, behind closed doors, and a furor erupted when word got out that Smith, a convicted felon, had been given a license without having appeared before the commission at a public meeting.
At the time, both then-assistant executive officer Marty Denkin and Ken Gray, the executive officer in Sacramento, accused one another of issuing the license. Not long afterward, Denkin was the subject of a state investigation on extortion charges. He was dismissed last June and replaced by Muse.
Muse denied Thursday that he had coordinated an investigation of Irvin. “A guy called me from the NFL security office about two weeks ago and asked me some questions about Irvin and Smith, and then he came to see me about two days later,” Muse said. “That’s the last I’ve heard from them.”
