Jim Irsay Loved His Team To Death
Jim Irsay just went and fucking died out of nowhere.
I guess nowhere might not be accurate. It wasn’t obvious until he passed, but there seemed to be something going south over the previous few months. He was in a wheelchair for a game last season and he appeared to have had a couple surgeries as recently as the draft. Of course, we all know about his demons. If anyone’s lifestyle was going to catch up with him at some point, it was probably Jim Irsay. His cause of death has not been released but I don’t think I’m out of line in assuming the first thought collectively among all NFL fans who knew of him, was “Overdose?”
Irsay was a billionaire failson who inherited the team from his father Robert Irsay. Robert, just from a glance at his Wikipedia page, seems to have been a genuinely evil man who tore his own family to shreds for business. I don’t think Jim was ever evil in that sense. He was too young to be meaningfully involved in the famous Baltimore screwjob of 1985 and he seemed to spend most of his time as an owner just being weird and stupid. Kind of like what you would be if you got handed a good life on a platter and didn’t really know what to do. Irsay was the first owner to publicly speak out against Dan Snyder, and that watershed moment may have finally been the crack that broke the dam open to get Snyder kicked out. I’m loathe to ever give a billionaire credit, but I do think we are going to miss Jim Irsay.
Jim Irsay feels like a dying (lol) breed of sports owner. His father came up in the era where any rich asshole could buy his favorite toy. Robert Irsay bought the Colts in 1972 for 12 million dollars. I have not done the calculations but I can confidently assume that even adjusted to today’s money that wouldn’t be nearly close to the current worth of the Colts. The monetary value of major sports franchises has ballooned into the billions. The only kind of person who can buy in now is a financial ghoul like David Tepper. People who seem to view their team primarily as a portfolio asset. Folks like Josh Harris or Stan Kroenke, who already own multiple other major franchises. I think this is why we are seeing more minority ownerships and why Private Equity was recently voted to have a limited small seat at the table (something that always turns out well for all involved!). Ownership was always about the money first, but now that’s all it seems to be. Actually loving the team? That’s pretty much only reserved now for failsons who grew up with their parent’s toy and have never known anything else (Like Irsay, Mara, or Davis) or rich assholes who snuck in under the wire before things got too out of hand (Jerruh, Kraft). Even among those types, Irsay stood out. You cannot say Jim Irsay did not love the Indianapolis Colts. He loved the Colts. He might have loved the Colts more than he loved drugs.
Irsay seemed to be rather well-liked by the Indianapolis community. He did a fair amount of local philanthropy and I’m sure as far as owners go, he was probably fun to have around for the Colts players. Only Peyton Manning seemed to have any lingering resentment towards the organization after his turbulent 2012 departure but that’s mostly speculation and Manning, at least publicly, expressed warm feelings for Jim. Professional slab of meat Pat McAfee also teared up, probably because his main supply just went belly up. You can tell how emotional Pat is in that video: he’s wearing sleeves.
Try to imagine other owners who would elicit this much reaction if they died. It’s not many. Jim wasn’t the smartest or best owner, but he was an invested one. That can be a bad thing, Dan Snyder seemed like he genuinely cared about Washington but he was also just an exceptional monster of a human at the same time. Jim Irsay didn’t seem like a monster. He wasn’t his dad. He was just a guy born into immersive privilege but seemed to genuinely appreciate the team he was given, maybe even more so than he appreciated his own life. I’d say Rest in Peace Jim, but if there is an afterlife of some sort, he’s likely already ripping it up. I don’t know if his children will have the same zeal for the Colts as Jim did, but I guess we get to sit back and see.
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As an aside, the other owners that I think genuinely, truly love their team as an entity and not just as a business venture: John Mara. For all his faults I think Mara loves the Giants. He wouldn’t have been so upset at losing Saquon to Philly if he wasn’t. Mara is also a failson to a legacy owner, and he’s never been anything else. Mark Davis fits this too. I do think Jerruh loves the Cowboys, but Jerruh’s first love will always be money. Kraft is kind of a mix of financial ghoul who bought his favorite toy and loves it. The Packers are of course their own weird separate thing. Arthur Blank also seems to love the Falcons. Everyone else is a finance ghoul who uses the team as an asset or a legacy family ownership situation that doesn’t reveal much. Does Sheila Ford-Hamp love the Detroit Lions? She might, but it’s not that easy to tell. Does Gale Benson love the Saints the same way she loves helping cover up Catholic Church sex crimes? Tough to judge. You can be a successful, smart owner who makes good decisions for your organization (Like Stan Kroenke) but not love them in that way. Stan Kroenke would sell the Rams in a heartbeat if they suddenly became a financial problem. Mark Davis would probably struggle to willingly pass on the Raiders.
Also no rodgers, YIPPEE!
Great comic and commentary. It is clear to me that Irsay loved the Colts as well and put his heart into the team, as well as philanthropy, music and drugs…
I feel Eddie DeBartolo loved my Miners, despite being shady AF. His sister and dips shit BOL, not so much (there were even rumors of the Niners moving to Ohio at one point). I feel Jed is somewhere in the middle.
So I regret looking up sounding last week … but I guess they say you can never grow if you don’t move out of your comfort zone. So I’m bracing for an NSFW answer:
What’s BOL?
Considering the other typos I’m assuming that’s BIL, or brother in law. So you are safe from squick for another day.
Yeah BIL. Autocorrect sucks.
Lurie definitely loves the Eagles. He’s not a failson who inherited, but he is a failson who used his money to buy the team. I don’t know if it counts against that he absolutely would have bought the Patriots instead, had he been able to.
I think the fact that Lurie would have bought a different team had he been able to proves he’s a money guy who just likes owning a football team
Like, Maybe in 1994. But that’s 31 years ago. Just watch the way he keeps himself involved in the activities of the franchise without “meddling”. Heck, look at his speech to the other owners about nor banning the tush push! Lurie got fired up about it and really fought for his team. That’s good to hear. Owners don’t often get a chance to make a difference. The opportunity came Lurie’s way and he took advantage of it.
He may not have been a true fan when he bought the team in ’94 but if you look at the way he ingratiates himself into Philly and works with his team, you can tell that he loves the birds. As a Philly fan who watches the team closely, this is my take. I don’t think you’ll find a single Philly fan who hates Lurie, in fact, I think most of them have a very positive view of the man, from his running of the team to his other endeavors around the city (He does a lot of charity work with Autism awareness and research).
Yeah, exactly this. Early Lurie was absolutely a money guy at the start (but he wasn’t That Guy In France so we still loved him!), but over time he truly came to love the franchise and the city.
Would he have done the same thing with Boston had he bought the Pats instead? Maybe? Probably? But he definitely has transitioned from one camp to the other over his time in this city, and he and the city have certainly developed a deep connection that we wouldn’t trade for the world right now.
Paul Allen was a pretty beloved owner in large part because he bought the Seahawks to keep them in Seattle after Ken Behring tried to run off to LA with them.
Unfortunately the current owner is Jodie Allen the failsister of Paul
the thing that surprised me about Jim dying was that I learned about it from a guitar website instead of the NFL subreddit or something like that; apparently he was quite an avid collector of rare guitars
I remember the episode of IS (old, not reboot) where Dave and Sam speculated on who would win in an NFL owner free-for all fight to the death. I can’t remember which one picked Irsay, but the rationale was because he would inevitably be coked to the gills and could push through any injury. RIP Jim, you did love your team.
I think Pat is just repping his merch, and his merch has sleeves.
RIP Jim Irsay
Baltimore ScrewJob was 1984
Bob Irsay bought the Rams, then traded franchises with the Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom