Michael Irvin set the NFL world on fire with some comments about DeAndre Hopkins, Bill O’Brien and Aaron Hernandez Wednesday morning during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up.
Irvin said that O’Brien didn’t like how influential Hopkins was in Houston’s locker room, and that he compared the situation to what he dealt with when Aaron Hernandez was a member of the New England Patriots.
After news of this spread on social media, Hopkins himself took to Twitter with a high-road response:
“This is being blown way out of proportion. As I’ve said before, I enjoyed and am proud of my time with the Texans. I have the utmost respect for Coach O’Brien and that will not change. Now, I’m ready to play for the Cardinals.”
That’s a classy response from the superstar receiver. Certainly, he and O’Brien did not see eye-to-eye during their shared tenure in Houston, and it would have been easy to just let Irvin’s comments circulate without a response, or even perhaps to add fuel to the fire. Instead, Hopkins is doing everything he can to diffuse the situation.
Now he’s in perhaps an even better situation with the Arizona Cardinals after being traded with a chance to play for an innovative offensive mind in Kliff Kingsbury, with Kyler Murray tossing him the rock.