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Reuters
22-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Reports: Eldest daughter of Jim Irsay to claim operations role with Colts
May 22 - Late Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was a hands-on decision-maker from the highest seat in the team's operation after learning under his father. Now one of Irsay's children might follow a similar path to lead the Colts following her father's death. Irsay died at 65 on Wednesday and is survived by three children. His eldest daughter, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, listed by the team as vice chair and co-owner, reportedly will take on an expanded role with the franchise, according to multiple reports. Irsay was the son of Robert Irsay, who grew his fortune as a heating and air conditioning contractor. He bought the Los Angeles Rams for $19 million in 1972, then swapped them the Baltimore Colts, moving them to Indianapolis in 1984. Two years out of college, Jim Irsay became the team's general manager. He held the position until taking over as owner, chairman and CEO of the Colts in 1997 when his father died. Irsay-Gordon, 44, served as an intern for the Colts and is a member of multiple league committees. She has attended owners meetings and tended to official league business at her father's side -- and independently on behalf of ownership -- since 2004. She and her siblings -- Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson -- were named as vice chair/co-owners of the Colts in 2012. Irsay-Gordon has been heavily involved in the business side of the team since then and in the past several years continued to take on more responsibility in other areas of the organization. Former Colts general manager Ryan Grigson, who was in place when the Colts released Peyton Manning and drafted Andrew Luck No. 1 overall, publicly praised Irsay-Gordon's football instincts and knowledge. She filled in when Jim Irsay was suspended for six games by the NFL in 2014. The suspension came after he entered a guilty plea to DUI charges. --Field Level Media
Washington Post
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
In the corporate NFL, Jim Irsay's attributes were as big as his flaws
INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL C-suite just got a lot less interesting. Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, died Wednesday. A statement from the team said he 'passed away peacefully in his sleep,' but that doesn't feel quite right. For Irsay, a more fitting end would be that he went out with 'Paperback Writer' blasting through his mind, as he pictured John Lennon shredding those licks on the very guitar that he purchased for $530,000.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colts' Jim Irsay was the NFL's fallible and touchable owner, and his bold voice spelled the end of Dan Snyder
More than two years ago, when reports were flying that embattled Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder was threatening a knives out approach inside the league's fraternity of billionaires, some troubling questions emerged for some of the most powerful decision makers in football. What dirt had Snyder dug up on his fellow owners? Advertisement If he lost his bid to hold onto the Commanders, who would he use it on? And with this threat hanging overhead, who among the owners could take him on publicly? Then came a day in October of 2022, when Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay strode across the lobby of the Conrad hotel in downtown New York like a man with purpose. Taking a path straight into a throng of microphones and recorders, he peered into several cameras. And in a moment that would prove both weighty and unprecedented, he broke ranks with the fraternity and became the league's 'young Turk', effectively sending a message that it was about time for Snyder to gather his things and head for the exit. 'I believe there is merit to removing him as owner of the team,' Irsay said, immediately sending shockwaves through the NFL community. 'There's consideration that he should be removed.' Advertisement More than any other moment before those two sentences — and the word 'merit', which felt like a lightning bolt — it was suddenly clear that Snyder's NFL reign was coming to an end. After the congressional hearings and multiple league investigations and punishments, the penultimate public blow to Snyder was delivered by the pitch perfect messenger: The one owner who didn't have to fear whatever dirt Snyder had, because Irsay's mess was seemingly always out in the open anyway. Sometimes it was aired out intentionally by Irsay himself ... and sometimes aired out unintentionally by Irsay himself. This is the moment I thought of when the news spread on Wednesday that Irsay had died in his sleep at age 65. That one of his last major acts as an NFL owner was to prove that inside the fraternity, the untouchables could be made to be touchable. And at the very least, Irsay was that: fallible and flawed, colorful if not occasionally temperamental. And of course, successful, too. His critics will grumble at that point, remembering the last decade of Colts football as largely a middling struggle to recover from the unexpected retirement of Andrew Luck. But those who have long known Irsay will tell you that he was as frustrated as anyone else with the inability to put it all back together again. He was long haunted by not winning more Super Bowls with Peyton Manning and remained sad about the painful retirement decision that Luck was forced to make. Irsay did right by both players when the end came — releasing Manning so he could find his best late-career fit in the Denver Broncos, and declining to claw back nearly $25 million in signing bonus money that he could have chased down after Luck's career came to an abrupt end. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay (right) was emotional after announcing the team was releasing quarterback Peyton Manning on March 7, 2012. (Sam Riche/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) (MCT via Getty Images) But it's worth remembering that before those events pushed the Colts into the football wilderness, there was a 16-year run of success from 1999 to 2014 that remade Indianapolis into a football city — after a previous 15-year expanse when it had been largely been personified by the Indiana Pacers and Indianapolis 500. While a great deal of that credit will always go to Manning, it can't be forgotten that Irsay hired Bill Polian to build the Colts, and then Polian did exactly that, drafting and molding one of the most exciting offensive teams that the NFL had ever seen. Advertisement Yes, he inherited the team from his father, Robert Irsay. Yes, he was put to work inside the organization — even becoming the team's general manager at 24 — in a bid of nepotism that exists in literally every single NFL franchise in the league. Go into a team headquarters and throw a couple rocks. Eventually, you'll hit one of the owner's kids, grandkids, nieces or nephews. It's just how the league works. But Irsay deserves the respect of having taken the controls and then listening to the advice of some of the smartest people who have shaped the league, bedrock owners like the Pittsburgh Steelers' Dan Rooney and New York Giants' Wellington Mara. Then he took those lessons and hired football people to make football decisions, while also taking the guidance of Rooney and Mara and declaring that his team would be a family affair. That's why after his passing, the question didn't immediately turn to whether the Colts would be put up for sale. Instead, the wheel now goes into the hands of the three daughters he's been preparing to take over for years. That includes the eldest, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, who is expected to take over control of the team, and her two younger sisters, Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson. All three have held roles in the franchise for years. It's that kind of legacy plan that will keep the Colts grounded in Indianapolis, without fear of new ownership coming in and shaking things up or possibly even attempting to move entirely decades down the road. And for those who would laugh that off as implausible, there was a time when fans in Baltimore thought that, too. Before Irsay's father left town in one of the ugliest moves in league history. Advertisement That's part of the imperfect lineage, too. As Irsay would point out over the expanse of his life, he was born out of a family shaped by an alcoholic grandfather and then an alcoholic father — then into the hands of Irsay and his long struggle with substance abuse and coping with the deaths of two siblings at a young age. Much of that has been well documented since he was arrested in 2014 for driving under the influence and found with tens of thousands of dollars in cash and prescription drugs, a turning point that led to Irsay getting suspended by the NFL for six games and checking himself into a rehab facility. All of which highlighted a continual challenge that he often talked about openly, shaping his image in a way that called for a wide variety of titles. He could be a colorful, wandering hippy, or sometimes seem broken and struggling with mental health. That included his physical well-being, which had declined in recent years and included a hospitalization in 2024 that the Colts described as 'respiratory' related. But wherever Irsay was at in life, he was often open about it in a way that is uncommon amongst NFL owners. In a fraternity that commonly avoids emotional and mental nakedness, Irsay often had no clothes. And that made him appealing, so long as you could separate that part of him from his football failures over the last 10 years of his life. Advertisement Like most of us, he was a mixed bag. There were wins and losses, successes and failures. He was surely the best of himself and the worst of himself and also something in between. Different people will remember him different ways. And everyone will likely be right in their assessment at least some of the time. Personally, I'll remember him as the flawed, touchable owner who took on Dan Snyder publicly and sent a powerful NFL message when others inside the league's circle of power wouldn't. To borrow from Irsay's fighting stance in 2022, there's merit in that.
CBS News
21-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Jim Irsay, Indianapolis Colts owner, dies at 65
Jim Irsay, the owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts, died on Wednesday, the team said in a statement. He was 65. "Jim's dedication to and passion for the Indianapolis Colts in addition to his generosity, commitment to the community, and most importantly, his love for his family were unsurpassed," the team said. This is a developing story. It will be updated.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie reportedly likened tush push opposition to 'wet dream,' drawing ire of NFL's Troy Vincent
The survival of the tush push arrived as a surprise. And it didn't come without some last-minute and reportedly lurid wrangling from Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie at Wednesday's NFL owners meetings in Minneapolis. Advertisement Per multiple reports, Lurie held court during a lengthy speech ahead of a vote of owners on a proposal to ban the play that helped propel the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory in February. The pre-vote meeting also featured a plea from Jason Kelce, who was for years the centerpiece of the tush push as Philadelphia's All-Pro center. According to ESPN and The Athletic, Lurie spent roughly an hour arguing to fellow owners that the tush push should survive. Per both reports, Lurie took a, ahem, candid approach to making his case. Lurie told his fellow owners that other teams' efforts to ban the play that they otherwise overwhelmingly can't stop was "like a wet dream for a teenage boy." That's one way to put it. And one way to explain why "tempers flared" during the meeting, per ESPN's account. According to ESPN, Lurie's "wet dream" analogy drew the ire of NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, who reportedly chastised Lurie for making the comment in front of women in the room. Advertisement It's worth noting that Vincent was a proponent of the tush-push ban. And Lurie reportedly criticized him and commissioner Roger Goodell for their support of the ban during the meeting. Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie has a lot to smile about lately. () (Kara Durrette via Getty Images) In his plea, Lurie reportedly shot down arguments that the tush push presents an increased risk of player safety. In fact, he called it "the safest play in the history of the game." While that might be an overstatement, there's no established data to demonstrate that the tush push directly leads to an increased risk of injury — even if the Green Bay Packers made player safety the centerpiece of their proposal to ban it. Advertisement The length of Lurie's plea grew weary for a least one fellow owner. Per ESPN, San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York asked Lurie "how much more s***" he needed to say as the speech crossed the one-hour mark. But ultimately, Lurie's speech may have proved worthwhile. Nine other teams joined the Eagles in voting to keep the tush push legal, enough to thwart the proposed ban. Wednesday was expected to be the death knell for the short-yardage play that frequently results in a first-down or touchdown sneak for Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. But the vote to ban it fell two votes short of the 3/4 majority needed to bring its end. Twenty-two out of 32 NFL teams voted in favor of banning the play, where 24 votes were needed to change the rulebook. And a team that in part just rode the tush push to a Super Bowl championship will push on in the new NFL season. It's taking a victory lap in the meantime.
