Sportsfrog.com

Steve Levy just announced that Michael Irvin and ESPN are parting ways. It was a prepared statement that didn’t give any indication as to whose decision it was, or why. But The Merc is reporting that ESPN did the dumping. Apparently, Irvin’s annual evaluation didn’t go so well:

“ESPN decided Friday ‘as part of an annual evaluation’ not to exercise an option in Irvin’s contract, it was confirmed Saturday.

“‘Michael Irvin will not be returning to ESPN,’ said network spokesman Bill Hofheimer … Leaving ESPN is not his wish; however, Irvin will leave taking the high road.

“‘I truly appreciate what ESPN allowed me to do, but it was time to move on,’ Irvin said. ‘I loved working with those guys … but I feel blessed enough to do other things.’”

I’m sure those “other things” will involve some familiar habits, like taking care of his friends’ drug paraphanalia and screaming at John Salley.

UPDATE: Profootballtalk.com was predicting this a few hours ago, and have also predicted that Bill Parcells will be signing on to The Network soon to become part of the Monday Night Football team.