Indianapolis Colts' music-loving
owner Jim Irsay dies at age 65
[May 22, 2025]
By MICHAEL MAROT
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jim Irsay started his football career as a ball
boy. He finished it as a team owner.
Along the way, the NFL’s music man created his own, unique brand.
Irsay worked his way up through the organization, learning how to
run a football team, restoring the Colts’ once-proud tradition to
glory and created what some have dubbed the greatest guitar
collection on Earth — all while battling health issues and
addictions to alcohol and painkillers.
On Wednesday, Irsay’s remarkable journey ended at age 65. Pete Ward,
Irsay’s longtime right-hand man, made the announcement in a
statement, saying Irsay died peacefully in his sleep.
“Jim’s dedication 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,” Ward said.
“Our deepest sympathies go to his daughters, Carlie Irsay-Gordon,
Casey Foyt, Kalen Jackson and his entire family as we grieve with
them.”
Irsay had a profound impact on the franchise.
With the help of Hall of Fame general manager Bill Polian, Hall of
Fame coach Tony Dungy and Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning,
Irsay turned the Colts from a longtime laughingstock into a
perennial title contender, even winning a Super Bowl title.
He then used that success — and Manning's aura — to help convince
city leaders to build a retractable roof dome stadium that opened in
2008 and eventually allowed Indy to host a Super Bowl.
“I am heartbroken to hear about Jim Irsay’s passing,” Manning said
on social media. “He was an incredibly generous and passionate owner
and I will always be indebted to him for giving me my start in the
NFL. His love for the Colts and the city of Indy was unmatched. His
impact on the players who played for him will not be forgotten.”
More recently, though, Irsay battled health issues and became far
less visible following a fall at his home Dec. 8, 2023.
Police officers from Carmel, Indiana, a northern suburb of Indy,
responded to a 911 call from Irsay’s home. According to the police
report, the officers found Irsay breathing but unresponsive and with
a bluish skin tone.
A month later, Irsay was diagnosed with a respiratory illness.
During his annual training camp news conference last summer, Irsay
told reporters he was continuing to rehab from two subsequent
surgeries.
“It’s great to see you guys, the fans and to be out here,” he said
at the time. “I’m feeling great, you know, just trying to get this
left leg stronger, which it will be."
Irsay also did not speak during the recent NFL draft as he usually
did.
But his story is one of a kind.
As a teenager, he tossed footballs with MVP quarterbacks Johnny
Unitas and Bert Jones. He relied frequently on the lessons he
learned from rubbing elbows with some of the game’s most important
owners — Al Davis, Lamar Hunt, Wellington Mara and Art Rooney — as
they worked through the 1982 players’ strike and the implementation
of a salary cap.
And he presided over the greatest quarter-century of Colts football
thanks to Manning and quarterback Andrew Luck.
Irsay handled everything from ticket sales to public relations as he
rose through the organization even watching No. 1 overall pick John
Elway force a trade to Denver in 1983.
When he took over as owner following his father's death in 1997,
things were different. The arrival of Manning helped Irsay — and the
Colts — create a passionate local following that hadn't previously
existed but still remains strong today.
It wasn't always easy, either.
— When a 55% inheritance tax threatened his hold on the team, the
younger Irsay found enough cash to keep the family business.
— When his most prominent players were about to cash in during free
agency, Irsay often ponied up top dollar to keep them.
— And though some criticized him for focusing too much on offense
and not enough on defense, the combination allowed the Colts to find
their place in a small-market city that revered basketball.
“The man hates to lose more than he likes to win,” current general
manager Chris Ballard often said.
Things didn’t always go smoothly, though.
Robert Irsay was reviled in Baltimore following the move. Decades
later, even after another Baltimore team won a Super Bowl, and after
Jim Irsay repeatedly explained the move was precipitated by the
city’s attempt to take the franchise through eminent domain,
Baltimore still referred to the team only as the Indianapolis
football club.
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A quarter-century later, following a 2-14 record in
2011, Irsay tested the fans’ loyalties by releasing a 34-year-old
Manning, who missed the entire season with a neck injury. The
rebuild began around rookie QB Andrew Luck — a move that drew
comparisons to his father’s trade of Unitas in 1973 and the
subsequent selection of Jones in the draft.
The impending decision about Manning also became a public spectacle
throughout the 2011-12 offseason and again in 2013 when Manning
returned to Indy for the first time with his new team, the Denver
Broncos.
“It was the right move to make. Peyton and I talked about it. He
said it best in the press conference: I didn’t decide, he didn’t
decide, the football gods had laid the cards out and we both knew it
was best for him and us,” Irsay said later. “Emotionally, it was the
hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. In professional football, it’s
about winning and you have to be able to make the decisions that are
best for the franchise.”
But football was only part of Irsay's story.
He spent millions buying the original manuscripts to Jack Kerouac’s
generation-defining novel “On The Road” and Alcoholics Anonymous’
“Big Book” and routinely made them available to the public.
His ever-expanding musical collection included instruments and items
from The Beatles, James Brown, Prince, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix,
Elton John, Johnny Cash and Jerry Garcia; signed Presidential
documents; an original “wanted” poster for John Wilkes Booth; a 1953
Jackie Robinson bat; Muhammad Ali’s title belt from the 1974 “Rumble
in the Jungle;” even the saddle from Secretariat’s triple crown
wins.
Irsay also befriended singers such as Stephen Stills and John
Mellencamp, took inspiration from the lyrics of Bob Dylan and
revered the writings of Hunter S. Thompson, the self-described
“Gonzo journalist.”
“It’s a lot of fun to have these pieces, and guitars are always kind
of the most interesting, in some ways, because you can play them,
unlike a book, a manuscript or a painting,” Irsay said during the
summer of 2016. “You can play them, and they can become
four-dimensional.”
But Irsay also had his struggles.
He was a recovering alcoholic and his professional successes
couldn’t insulate him from a constant battle with painkillers. In a
November 2023 interview with HBO Sports, he acknowledged he had been
to rehab at least 15 times and once accidentally overdosed.
The low point may have come in March 2014 when he was arrested near
his home in Carmel while driving erratically. When officers searched
the car they found nearly $30,000 in cash and numerous bottles of
prescription pills. Five and a half months later, he pleaded guilty
to a misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, and
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Irsay for six games and
fined him $500,000.
Irsay described the absence as heartbreaking.
“I couldn’t even imagine how hard that was,” former Colts punter and
now talk-show host Pat McAfee said after the suspension ended.
“You’re talking about a guy who’s been around the Colts his entire
life, who personifies the Horseshoe.”
Still, he was wise enough to allow Polian almost free rein to
construct a team that won a then-record number of regular-season
games in a decade (115).
And he leaves a legacy that won’t be blowing in the wind.
Aside from the images of Irsay wearing a tie wrapped around his
forehead on a magazine cover, tossing footballs in a suit, or his
utterances on Twitter, he was a shrewd businessman with a big heart.
When the Colts won the Super Bowl, he even sent a ring to two-time
rushing champ Edgerrin James, who had left in free agency before the
championship season.
“The guy grew up with this team,” then-coach Chuck Pagano said in
January 2015. “He’s got so much insight and so much knowledge. He’s
a football man through and through. It runs through his veins and
he’s got so much wisdom to share with all of us. He makes a huge
impact.”
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