Colts Owner Jim Irsay’s Truly Bizarre ESPN Interview
Please stop talking.
Colts owner Jim Irsay has spent the last 24 hours or so dealing with the fallout stemming from the comments he made earlier this week about his former quarterback Peyton Manning, who is returning to Indianapolis on Sunday to play for the first time since being released by the team in March 2012.
Manning has played dozens of games in Lucas Oil Stadium since it opened in August 2008, but this is the first time he’ll be doing it in a Broncos uniform. It’s also the first time he’ll be facing Andrew Luck, the standout Stanford star that ultimately took his job.
And considering Manning is now 37-years-old, those firsts are likely to be lasts as well.
Please stop talking.
Irsay has said in the past he struggled with the decision to dismiss the future Hall of Famer, but this week made it clear that he has no regrets. In an interview with USA Today, Irsay made some comments that many deemed disrespectful to Manning.
Probably because they were, in fact, disrespectful to Manning.
“We’ve changed our model a little bit, because we wanted more than one of these. [Flashing a Super Bowl ring] Brady never had consistent numbers, but he has three of these. Pittsburgh had two, the Giants had two, Baltimore had two and we had one. That leaves you frustrated.
“You make the playoffs 11 times, and you’re out in the first round seven out of 11 times. You love to have the ‘Star Wars’ numbers from Peyton and Marvin and Reggie. Mostly, you love this.” [Flashing a Super Bowl ring again]
In Irsay’s typical desperate media-seeking fashion, he has once again managed to make himself the story. The game is still days away, but it’s been treated as an aside event to the ridiculous circus he can’t seem to live without.
Initially Irsay was defiant, guffawing at the notion that there was something wrong with anything he said and defending himself via unhinged rants on Twitter. Which would have been more respectable if he hadn’t immediately started slowly backpedaling.
Please stop talking.
First it was there was nothing wrong with what he said. Then it was the comments were “taken out of context.” Now it’s devolved into something much sadder.
In an interview with ESPN on Wednesday, Irsay attempted to further clarify his comments, but despite rambling for minutes at time, managed to say absolutely nothing.
Red-faced and sweating, a surprisingly meek Irsay came across pathetic and middling as he babbled incoherently for nearly five straight minutes, attempting to answer a single question.
SERIOUSLY. Please stop talking.
Now that Irsay has sufficiently embarrassed himself, perhaps he’ll finally shut his mouth. And then we can go back to focusing on the great game ahead and pretending his sad-sack self doesn’t exist.
