Michael Irvin defends Jed York after recent arrest

Published September 7, 2026 09:26 AM On Thursday night, the 49ers and Rams will play in Australia — and the game will be streamed by Netflix. One of the Netflix pregame analysts has already shared some strong feelings about a recent issue involving the owner of the 49ers.Hall of Famer Michael Irvin has publicly defended Jed York for his recent arrest, and no-contest plea, on misdemeanor charges arising from a prostitution sting in East Palestine, Ohio.“He got divorced five, six months ago, so I’m like, ‘Man, come on. Is that really a crime?’ Let that man go. Leave it alone,” Irvin told N3on on a Twitch stream, via Qwame Skinner of Awful Announcing.“Like, imagine if . . . you’re going through a divorce and some, and some young girl, some pretty girl come up to you hitting on you, you know, and she’s undercover. You don’t know. And I don’t know how that happened or what happened with him.”What happened with York wasn’t that. He actively sought someone out on a website that was part of the sting operation. After his third attempt to make contact was successful, the meeting — and the trap — were set. Irvin still has no problem with the situation.“Everybody’s paying for it,” Irvin said. “You take [a girlfriend] out to eat, you’re paying for it. Everybody’s paying for it. So what are we doing? Why we gotta embarrass this man for 140 dollars? People think, ‘You’re a billionaire. Why didn’t you go to high-end places?’ The high-end places get you in trouble all the time.”No one is embarrassing York. He created the situation on his own. And, obviously, his risk-reward calculation surely included the theoretical possibility that he’d end up in handcuffs for reasons other than the way handcuffs possibly would be utilized during such encounters.Making Irvin’s comments more relevant is the fact that he’ll be on the 49ers-Rams pregame broadcast. Will Netflix embrace the subject and give Irvin a chance to repeat his viewpoint to a much larger live audience? Will Netflix steer clear of it?There’s also a third possibility: Netflix doesn’t add the subject to the planned topics to address, and Irvin finds a way to bring it up.However it goes, it’s all the more reason to tune in on Thursday night to hear what Irvin has to say about it, if anything.And if he says anything, there’s a good chance he’ll say everything.