Michael Irvin’s lawsuit against Marriott won’t go before an Arizona jury until the middle of next year at the earliest, according to court records obtained by Front Office Sports.
Irvin sued Marriott for defamation and tortious interference in March over its handling of sexual harassment allegations made by an employee against Irvin days before Super Bowl LVII.
The incident led Irvin to be evicted from the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel and to his ongoing suspension as an NFL Network analyst.
Irvin returned to the air this week as a contributor on FS1’s “Undisputed” hosted by Skip Bayless. Monday marked his first appearance as an on-air personality since the allegations were first made public on Feb. 8, which also sidelined Irvin from appearing on ESPN’s “First Take.”
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper issued a scheduling order Wednesday that laid out several deadlines for the case, including a May 2024 hearing to set a trial date.
Cooper also mandated mediation and gave a June 2024 deadline for completing that process. Irvin’s legal team and Marriott were ordered to agree on a private mediator to work out a settlement before trial.
“All attorneys and their clients, all self-represented parties, and any non-attorney representatives who have full and complete authority to settle this case shall personally appear and participate in good faith in this mediation, even if no settlement is expected,” Cooper wrote.
The Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel employee reported to hotel management that Irvin sexually propositioned her and touched her arm without consent on the night of Feb. 5. Irvin’s lawyers obtained the surveillance video and made it public in March, but minus audio, it didn’t establish or disprove Irvin’s insistence that it was a “friendly interaction.”
Two witnesses found by Irvin’s lawyer said they didn’t see anything out of the ordinary about the Hall of Fame receiver’s exchange with the employee outside a bar area of the hotel.
In a court filing first reported by FOS on Monday, Marriott lawyers wrote Irvin “had no recollection of what he said to Jane Doe because he had been drinking.”
It’s unclear what role the lawsuit plays in Irvin’s NFL Network suspension. Irvin has worked at NFL Network since 2009, and he re-upped with the NFL-owned outlet last year.
The NFL investigated the incident, a source with knowledge of the matter told FOS.
