What new Colts principal owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon learned on the headset

Indianapolis Star

a day ago

INDIANAPOLIS — For a long time now, Carlie Irsay-Gordon's presence with the Colts has been easy to see.
Every game, Irsay-Gordon could be seen walking up and down the sideline, wearing a headset, listening to the rapid-fire staccato of the coaching staff calling plays, adjusting the game plan, making key decisions.
Irsay-Gordon, who is taking over as the team's principal owner and leading the football side in the wake of Jim Irsay's death while sharing ownership with her sisters, Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson, first had the idea when Indianapolis hired Chuck Pagano as head coach in 2012.
By that point, she'd spent more than a decade working in almost every piece of the organization.
But Irsay-Gordon realized she needed to know more about the game to make the hiring decisions that often define an owner's tenure.
'That sort of accelerated my, 'I need to learn more about this. I need to be able to say, 'Is this person full of BS? Do they know what they're talking about?'' Irsay-Gordon said.
Irsay-Gordon needed to learn more about the game.
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The headset was one of her classrooms, along with the practice field, positional meetings and conversations with players. Irsay-Gordon has spent a decade learning everything she can about the game from the Colts themselves.
'She's always in meetings, whether it's team meetings, d-unit meetings, in the d-line room, on the field almost every day at practice and obviously on the sidelines,' Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner said. 'She's always got her big notebook, always taking notes, always asking questions about the game. … And obviously, now it's her time to step up and take the lead, and we all have great confidence in her.'
Irsay-Gordon's approach is unique.
Not a lot of owners wear a headset on the sideline during games, and Colts players have been asked by opponents on the field about what Irsay-Gordon is doing.
To the Colts, her presence felt natural.
'If I owned a football team, I would definitely want to know what's going on on those sidelines,' Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said a couple of weeks ago.
As her knowledge grew, Irsay-Gordon's confidence in the game grew with it.
'She'll even come and give you a pop quiz sometimes, so you've got to make sure you're not asleep in those meetings,' receiver coach Reggie Wayne said. 'She's been a student of the game for many years.'
The lessons Irsay-Gordon has learned have been invaluable to the Colts already.
'One of the things that being on the headset has really helped me learn is, to the question earlier, it's such a complex organism, a football team, and how it operates on game day,' Irsay-Gordon said. 'I think that's been very valuable, because it also helps us be able to know: Where do we need to make tweaks? What resources do we need? What do we need to fix? So much of it comes down to how we operate and how things work.'
Irsay-Gordon has not been involved in play-calling or in-game decisions, although wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. joked that by now, she's probably ready to call a play or two.
But Irsay-Gordon was preparing for this moment, a moment that has come far sooner than she or her sisters would have wanted.
A franchise-altering decision could be on the horizon. Irsay-Gordon clearly stated her belief Tuesday in general manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen in her first public comments since her father's death, but she also acknowledged that the Colts haven't met the standard, echoing her father's final decision on Ballard and Steichen at the end of a disappointing 2024 season.
Irsay-Gordon is now the person, along with Foyt and Jackson, who will make the decisions on Ballard and Steichen in the future.
After a decade on the headset, she feels much better prepared to make those choices.
'I would suggest it for anybody else who has to pay coaches and GMs millions and millions of dollars,' Irsay-Gordon said. 'It helps you make a less expensive mistake, potentially.'