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.
