Jim Irsay bravely speaking truth on Daniel Snyder is why Indy is lucky to have him | Opinion
Principles are easy to have, until you need to put them into practice. Colts owner Jim Irsay knows that, making it all the more impressive that he’s the first and so far only NFL owner to take a public stand against Daniel Snyder, saying Snyder should be – and suggesting he will be – removed as owner of the Washington Commanders.
This is a bold, brave move for Irsay. You know why. That incident in March 2104 in Carmel. The charge of driving while impaired. The $29,000 in cash and pills. The NFL’s six-game suspension from running the Colts.
That was Irsay’s situation eight years ago, a situation that exploded publicly and lingers to this day, with fans of other NFL teams repeatedly taunting Irsay on his Twitter feed about that 2014 incident.
The man’s not perfect. You know that, I know that, rest assured Jim Irsay knows that. But we’re lucky he’s the owner of the Colts. He cares about the city and its residents, especially its most vulnerable. He donates millions, and urges the city to do its part as well.
Irsay has lived a life, and he’s done some things – this is me, raising my hand, shouting SO HAVE I – but we’re lucky he’s our guy.
Imagine an alternative universe, where our NFL team had another owner. I mean, we could’ve had Robert Kraft. Or Jerry Jones. Or Jimmy Haslam.
Or God forbid, we could’ve had Daniel Snyder.
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Jim Irsay wanted this audience for his Daniel Snyder comments
This is something Irsay had planned. You have to know that. He was at the hotel at the NFL owners meeting on Tuesday, in the lobby, surrounded by reporters. His right-hand man, Colts COO Pete Ward, was there. So was Irsay’s ubiquitous bodyguard, huge and imposing, lurking just a few steps away.
Irsay could’ve avoided that audience. But, no. He wanted it.
Small aside: I asked Irsay to talk about this with me, privately, last week. This was after ESPN’s bombshell of a report that Snyder, who has owned the Washington football team since 1999, had hired private investigators to dig up dirt on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other owners, in an effort to maintain his grip on his franchise. The franchise’s value has been spiraling downward under Snyder’s stewardship, with allegations of a toxic workplace culture and sexual harassment embarrassing the team, and the league.
When ESPN reported that Snyder was seeking dirt on other owners, I reached out to Irsay. Something like: You willing to speak about Snyder’s threat?
Came back the response, from one of Irsay’s people: Not right now.
Looks to me, now, that he was waiting for Tuesday. Here I am, giving you that little peek behind the curtain, not to complain about missing out on the story – but to power home the point that Irsay had bigger plans. And truth be told, if that’s why he wouldn’t speak with me, fine. Promise you, I prefer that to the idea that he was unwilling to take on an owner as slimy, as awful, as Daniel Snyder. That he was scared. That his principles extended only so far.
Turns out, Irsay has more principles than any owner in the NFL, most of whom apparently want Snyder gone – “I think potentially there will be” 24 owners voting to remove Snyder, Irsay said – but none having the courage to stand publicly in the lobby of the lower Manhattan luxury hotel and say it to the world.
Irsay said it.
He said, “I believe there is merit to removing (Snyder) as owner.”
And he said: “I believe that’s the road we have to go down. … I believe it’s in the best interest of the National Football League.”
Nobody else would say it. Like, what’s Cowboys owner Jerry Jones doing? He loves media attention, loves to be the general manager, the voice of the Cowboys, the tough ol’ cowboy. Where was Jones, to say that Daniel Snyder was a pox on the NFL’s house?
Maybe Jones was scared off by Snyder’s threat, as reported by ESPN, that he had enough material to “blow up” other owners. Snyder, ESPN reported, had a “file” on Jerry Jones in particular.
Is that why Jerry Jones, arguably the most powerful owner in the NFL, with his and his franchise’s history of sordid lawsuits, stayed silent about Snyder? In any event, there’s a saying about glass houses. You know the one.
Jim Irsay used to live in one of those glass houses, before the incident in 2014 brought the whole thing shattering down.
And set the man free.
Indianapolis lucky to have Irsay family
Last time I spoke with Jim Irsay, he was shouting about being a walking dead man. This was just a few weeks ago, when I asked to speak with him and his youngest daughter, Kalen Irsay Jackson, about the team’s Kicking the Stigma initiative, devoted to raising awareness and financial support in the fight against mental illness.
Irsay was telling me about riding in a car with Edgerrin James in 2021 at the Pro Football Hall of Fame parade in Canton, Ohio, driving past a ceremony and seeing those graves and knowing how lucky he’d been to avoid that fate. He’s seen some hard times, has Jim Irsay, drinking and drugging and partying with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson, whose hard-living lifestyle contributed to his to death by suicide in 2005.
Irsay told me about his father's violence, about his own trips to rehabilitation. His daughter, Kalen, told me about her own struggles with anxiety as a child, the grip so powerful that teachers at Park Tudor would find her an empty classroom to start the school day, where she could cry until she was ready for class.
These are brave acts by brave people who aren’t scared about whatever secrets Daniel Snyder’s investigators might uncover. Can you imagine how vulnerable that could be for the billionaire owner of an NFL team? Think of your net worth, whatever it is. How many secrets do you have, that you’d be devastated for the world to know? How many do I have? We’re not alone, you and me.
Jim Irsay? He stands alone, daring Daniel Snyder to come at him with whatever dirt some private detective has dug up.
"You can investigate me ‘til the cows come home,” Irsay said Tuesday. “That’s not going to back me off, private investigators or any of that stuff."
This is our guy, Indianapolis.
Imagine if Jerry Jones was our guy. Imagine it being Stephen Ross of the Dolphins, whose franchise fired Brian Flores after Flores said Ross tried to bribe him to lose, or Jimmy Haslam, whose Pilot Flying J gas company has had to pay more than $175 million to customers ($85 million settlement) and the government ($92 million fine) because of a fraud scheme based on unpaid rebates.
Imagine it being Robert Kraft, who was in South Florida hours before the 2019 AFC title game in Kansas City for a “massage.” You know that story. If you don’t, Google it. This is a family newspaper. I’m not writing about the grotesque predilections of Robert Kraft.
It’s true, Irsay has had his awful moment in the spotlight. That 2014 incident in Carmel, the video that came out, all that. Those were his personal demons getting the best of him. He has owned it, done his time, gone to rehab, and then spoken publicly about it.
Irsay spoke in 2014, and he spoke with me a few weeks, and now he’s in New York City, speaking some more truth, daring the owner of the Washington Commanders to find something, anything, that would stop Jim Irsay from saying what nobody else has the courage to say. That the NFL needs to get rid of Daniel Snyder.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.