Opinion: Jim Irsay’s struggles and successes
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay died last week.
Around the city, many newspaper articles and TV stories have focused on his life and charity, his love of art, his successes and his struggles. There’s no doubt about it: Irsay was a generous man. Known for handing out $100 bills like candy, surprising his employees with gifts, generously donating to several hospitals and advocating for mental health, his impact on the city of Indianapolis will never be forgotten. He had an art collection worth hundreds of millions of dollars (he said once that he could’ve sold the collection to a man in the Middle East for over $1 billion) that he showed for free to the public.
He was also a man of documented struggles who fought drug addictions. He undoubtedly had many demons.
Less discussed, or under-discussed, is what he brought to the football field, his successes and failures on the gridiron. That is the point of this article.
One of Irsay’s shortcomings was his rash decision-making, best exemplified when he essentially blew up the entire football side of the organization by firing general manager Bill Polian, head coach Jim Caldwell, and by necessity, quarterback Peyton Manning. While the Colts had some success with drafting Andrew Luck, and while there should have been consequences for an ugly 2011 season following Manning’s neck injury, it was a huge turning point for the organization. He could have kept the front office intact, kept Manning (who went on to win a Super Bowl with Denver), and likely taken the franchise to another Super Bowl.
The Colts have not yet recovered from those moves.
One of his more poignant moments came with hiring Jeff Saturday in 2022, a year in which the Colts struggled under Frank Reich. What struck me was not so much the decision but Irsay’s words at a press conference when he introduced the former Colts player as interim head honcho. He was a bit too proud of himself: “We’re the fourth-winningest franchise in the league since 2000. That means in the upper quartile of winners, we’re in the top quartile of that upper quartile.”
What was so ironic about those words is that the long history he was so proud of occurred under the very same people he fired.
Those were the negatives.
But his finest move came in 1998 when he hired Polian. The general manager drafted Manning over Ryan Leaf – which was hardly a popular move at the time – and built a team that was inspiring to me as a native Hoosier and often-picked-on high school kid. Irsay also hired Tony Dungy and subsequently built a team that, for the better part of a decade, dominated its opponents and won a Super Bowl in 2007. Anytime the Colts lost it was a bit of a shock. No other teams, outside of the Patriots, have been like that since.
The Colts were a thrill to watch during those times. The 2004 season, watching Manning chase the season-long touchdown record, was especially fun. Downtown Indy was alive on every game day. Being in the city on night games was always fun during those years as fans got lit-up in downtown bars and marched their way to the RCA Dome, and later, Lucas Oil Stadium.
Irsay did that.
It is my hope that his family members will remember those days of their father and return the franchise to its winning ways.
May he rest in peace.