How Carlie Irsay-Gordon, Casey Foyt & Kalen Jackson found their new roles as Colts' owners

Indianapolis Star

a day ago

INDIANAPOLIS — When the Colts bus that Jim Irsay loved so much left St. Luke's United Methodist Church last week and drove down Meridian to Crown Hill Cemetery, the drive took Irsay through the heart of his city one last time.
People saw the bus and honked their horns. Pulled their car to the side of the road, waved from their yards, cheered.
Irsay's funeral had been private, a chance for those close to him to celebrate his legacy, but as the bus drove, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson got to see another part of his legacy.
'It was very emotional, but an extremely beautiful reminder of what he represented here,' Jackson said. 'We don't take that lightly in any way.'
Irsay-Gordon, Foyt and Jackson made their first public appearance as the team's owners on Tuesday, lovingly remembering their father, projecting strength, firmly promising to continue the Colts' legacy in Indianapolis.
Gently reminding that a part of Irsay's legacy is already their own.
Irsay's daughters have spent decades preparing for this moment, following in their father's path of learning the entire organization from an early age, beginning their Colts careers in high school and staying the course through to this moment.
'He let us in on conversations at a very young age, and when I look back on it now, I'm kind of surprised, but he trusted us,' Jackson said. 'He knew that we understood the seriousness of this job, and the responsibility that we had, and I think we'll forever be grateful for that.'
Irsay's guiding hand, and his daughters' commitment to the team, have led to a moment that has eluded a handful of other NFL teams. The deaths of Saints owner Tom Benson and Broncos owner Pat Bowlen prompted brutal battles for control of the teams, battles that had to be settled in court.
Leaving a property as valuable as an NFL team to more than one heir is far from simple.
But on Tuesday, Irsay-Gordon, Jackson and Foyt took the podium together, ready to share the ownership of their father's franchise.
'My dad was so proud to see each of us find our own niche in the franchise our family loves so much,' Irsay-Gordon said.
Irsay-Gordon, the oldest, will serve as the principal owner and the leader of the football operations. Foyt is listed as an executive vice president, working in marketing and community relations. Jackson, who has led the team's Kicking the Stigma initiative for years, coordinates the family's community and philanthropic efforts.
The three daughters gravitated to their areas of expertise naturally.
A rarity, to some degree. Even among family, there is often friction over the future, over who will take over which responsibility when a parent dies. In some families, the parents try to dictate the future themselves.
But that wasn't the way Irsay handled it.
'I would say that it naturally happened. … it was never like, 'This is what you're doing,'' Irsay-Gordon said. 'I mean, it was always, you should do what you love, and be yourself, and follow your heart.'
Football grabs everybody's attention.
From the outside world, it is the only piece of the organization that matters, the wins and losses that drive fan interest and fill Lucas Oil's seats.
From owner's perspective, the football matters most.
But an owner is in charge of much more than football, and that allowed Irsay's daughters to carve out their own role in this leadership team.
'He always said to us, ''That's one of the most beautiful things about sport,'' Jackson said. ''There's so many areas that you can be involved in.''
There will be times the three sisters disagree on the direction of the team, in one way or the other.
The job is too big for agreement all the time.
'They always say that the relationships with your siblings are probably the most important in life,' Jackson said. 'They're the people you're with the most, the people that will most likely stay with you the longest. And we know our faults and our strengths and weaknesses probably better than most. Of course we're going to disagree, but we've also learned, again, from our dad and just from life. We're old enough to have learned how to handle those disagreements.'
Irsay did not have a sibling to help bear the burden of the job, to talk about ideas, to provide checks and balances. Where their father was alone at the top, his daughters have each other.
The way they've grown into different areas of the building on West 56th Street will help.
'I think it's happened pretty nicely, naturally, that we've all developed our own niches and areas that we're working and contributing to in the building,' Irsay-Gordon said. 'It's great to be able to focus on the things that you're really passionate about and have your business partners doing the other things they're passionate about.'
Ultimately, though, Irsay's daughters are counting on their shared commitment to the team their family has loved for so long, that they've already spent so many hours building with him.
Irsay had a horseshoe tattoo.
All three of his daughters have the same tattoo.
'It was more than just a symbol of loyalty, hard work and compassion,' Foyt said. 'It was so much more – what it meant to him, and he ingrained that in all of us. It was more about, it was a family.'