September 6, 2025
The former Dallas Cowboy great talked about it on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay
Former NFL player Michael Irvin spoke about dealing with the effects of his wife’s condition after she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s last year.
According to Complex, the It Is What It Is analyst appeared on NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay platform and discussed how he has been dealing with taking care of his wife of over 35 years, Sandy. The couple met while in college, and he states that, although she was diagnosed with the disease, he is still her primary caretaker and she is still living with him.
After noticing a change in her behaviour about 10 years ago, the former Dallas Cowboys player initially thought it was menopause. Still, after burying his own mother, who also had Alzheimer’s Disease, they decided to have Sandy tested.
“With the support that she’s given me over the years… I’m 59, and we recognized some things were going wrong with her about ten years ago,” Irvin told Sharpe. “We thought it was menopause, you know, you go through it and start going to the doctor. Now, I’m coming off of burying my mother-in-law. My mom- she had Alzheimer’s. My mother-in-law was living with us ’cause she had Alzheimer’s, and we were taking care of her.”
After more than a year of testing, Sandy was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. She is getting 24-hour care, and Irvin has hired a nurse to help him with taking care of his wife. He states that she is not living in a facility, although it’s difficult. He noted that if there is anyone who deserves to be in her home, it’s Sandy.
He does mention that she does not recognize anyone, even him, although about three months ago, she acknowledged him and said, “Come here, baby.”
“She doesn’t recognize anyone. You know, it’s funny for the first time about three months ago, and I promise you, man, in at least seven-eight years before, she looked at me and held her hands out like, “Come here, baby.” And she hadn’t done that in seven to eight years. About six years ago, she came, and we were in the room, and she looked at me, like,” Who is this in my bed?” And that’s when I knew, I can’t be in the room anymore. So I had to go to the other room, because she was like, ‘Hey, who’s the man in my bed?”
The full discussion can be viewed below:
RELATED CONTENT: Healing A Generation: The Intertwined Crisis Of Black Maternal Mental Health And Infant Well-Being
