JIM IRSAY IS CLOSE TO DEATH, NOT REALIZING LIFE CAN VANISH AT ANY TIME
On a day when Golden State assistant Dejan Milojević died of a heart attack after dinner, the Indianapolis Colts owner doesn’t understand his painkillers addiction leaves him unfit to operate a team
Notice the headlines on Hunter Biden and those on Jim Irsay. In the path of our nation in a political year, Biden is called a dopehead and a thief. But he seems to have the same issues as Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, who had a “blue skin tone” on Dec. 8 and was treated with Narcan to overcome an opioid overdose.
I look at all hard addicts alike. Whatever we should do with Biden, we cannot have Irsay running a $4.35 billion franchise with a home field, Lucas Oil Stadium, built via funds from Indiana and a home city that won’t be paid off until 2037. Irsay says he has overdosed on drugs before and been to rehab at least 15 times. He is close to death in his battle with painkillers. Still, he cannot pull himself away from leading the Colts, describing his condition as a “severe respiratory illness.”
It’s time for the NFL to find grave help before he passes away. Irsay tells his underlings to cover for him, with general manager Chris Ballard saying after the latest news Wednesday, “Mr. Irsay continues to recover from his respiratory illness. We will have no further comment on his personal health and we continue to ask that Jim and his family’s privacy be respected.” His personal health? He is stuck with a dependency that led to a six-game league suspension in September 2014, after he pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while intoxicated and police found prescription drugs and $29,000 in cash in his car. That scene happened in Carmel, the suburb where he lives.
So did his latest scene, which happened in his home. Paramedics found him cold to touch at 4:32 a.m., before he was taken to a hospital with a suspected overdose. He was released and attended a Colts home game Dec. 16, a recovery that feeds Irsay’s medical crusade, with a charitable movement called “Kicking the Stigma” funding more than $25 million for addiction and mental health. Certainly, he should be applauded for going public with his cause. It’s another story, though, when he is sent to the emergency room to be rescued as he was years ago.
It remains appalling how the league — led by commissioner Roger Goodell, who was paid almost $128 million in his last two periods — leaves those owners alone when they require serious assistance. This was clear in Irsay’s case in November, when he said his DUI arrest was the work of officers prejudiced against him as “a rich, white billionaire.” Saying he pleaded guilty “just to get it over with,” Irsay told HBO Sports, “If I’m just the average guy down the block, they’re not pulling me in, of course not. … I don’t care what it sounds like. It’s the truth. I could give a damn what people think how anything sounds or sounds like. The truth is the truth, and I know the truth.”
If Irsay was at a game eight days later, Goodell and fellow NFL owners failed to take action. Why no help from his comrades? They don’t want to be nailed later for their own life problems. Maybe they simply don’t care enough about Irsay, who is 64 and said, “The arrest was wrong. I just had hip surgery, and had been in the car for 45 minutes. And what — they asked me to walk the line? Are you kidding me? I can barely walk at all.”
Death is in the sports news early in 2024. Irsay is dealing with substances, but any of us can say farewell shockingly, as we understood with the death of Golden State assistant coach Dejan Milojević. He was a longtime adviser to Nikola Jokic and helped lead Serbian players to the NBA. Eating dinner with Warriors coaches and players Tuesday, he suffered a heart attack in Salt Lake City. He was 46.
“We are absolutely devastated by Dejan’s sudden passing,” coach Steve Kerr said. “This is a shocking and tragic blow for everyone associated with the Warriors and an incredibly difficult time for his family, friends, and all of us who had the incredible pleasure to work with him. In addition to being a terrific coach, Dejan was one of the most positive and beautiful human beings I’ve ever known, someone who brought joy and light to every single day with his passion and energy.”
Said NBA commissioner Adam Silver: “The NBA mourns the sudden passing of Dejan Milojević, a beloved colleague and dear friend to so many in the global basketball community. In addition to winning the 2022 NBA championship in his first season with the Warriors and mentoring some of the best players in the world, Dejan had a decorated international playing career and was a distinguished head coach in his native Serbia.”
Golden State’s game against the Utah Jazz was postponed. Milojević left behind his wife and two children. “I teach all my players that basketball is not a job, but that they should enjoy the game,” he once said. “To do something for the next 20 years, then you have to love it a lot. It’s not easy to endure all these efforts if you don’t like something. Only those who have a sincere love for the game can handle everything with great success.”
The likes of Jokic and Luka Doncic were stunned. His death should remind us that our days aren’t constant. A football owner in Indianapolis is looking forward to next season, but at the moment, he might ask why he wouldn’t reply to responders and couldn’t breathe last month.
Let’s hope he doesn’t blame his new problems as those of “a rich, white billionaire.” Right now, he’s a poor soul who is one overdose from death. “Addiction and alcoholism,” said Irsay, “is a fatal disease.” He chose to use fatal.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.