Podcaster Bill Simmons has watched Colts Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon constantly roam the sidelines with a headset and clipboard, and he’s had enough.
Irsay-Gordon, the daughter of late Colts Owner Jim Irsay, has made quite a name for herself by maintaining a constant sideline presence as she listens in on the team’s coaching communications, play calling, and all essential gameday activities. At times, she’s even been sighted pulling coaches over and asking them questions during the game.
Despite this highly unusual behavior from a league owner, she has largely escaped criticism from major NFL media until now.
“I’m not gonna tiptoe around this anymore. And I know it’s been a topic the last couple of weeks; I think the owner on the sidelines taking notes is (expletive) nuts. I think it’s nuts! I think it’s bonkers!” Simmons said on his latest podcast. “I can’t believe she does this, and I can’t believe people in her life haven’t talked her out of it.
“And now there’s this push of like, ‘Oh, no, no, she’s really into it.’ If a male owner were doing this, we would be ridiculing this guy till the cows come home…we would think it was so f*cking funny if some rich guy, male owner, was on the sideline with a notebook hovering over and giving advice to the coach. Even Jerry Jones wouldn’t do that! And Irsay’s daughter is doing it, and we’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, well, you know, she cares about the team.’ Why are we making excuses for how weird this is?”
Irsay-Gordon has defended her hands-on approach to ownership in the past, citing her need to learn what is happening on the field.
“I think one of the things that I learned in going through, even as back as when we hired Chuck Pagano (in 2012), is that sort of accelerated my ‘I need to learn more about this,’” Irsay-Gordon told the Colts’ official website last year. “‘I need to be able to say, is this person full of BS? Do they even know what they’re talking about? And I think one of the things that being on the headset has really helped me learn is to answer the question earlier: it’s such a complex organism of a football team and how it operates.”
Irsay-Gordon owns the team and, as such, can do what she wants. But Simmons has a solid point: If Jerry Jones were patrolling the sidelines with a headset and clipboard, it would not be viewed the same way.