Nepo coach

Ms Carlie Irsay-Gordon is the granddaughter of Robert Irsay, the eldest daughter of Jim Irsay, and the sister of fellow Colts co-owners Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson. She is the CEO and calls the shots after all is said and undone.

She found a Colts cheerleader outfit from the 1950s.

Just her bloodline is enough to make me shun her. Her great-grandmother, mother of Robert "Bob" Irsay, once said that Big Bob was "the devil on earth," and that was before he took our Colts and moved them to some hellhole in a state with towns such as Gnaw Bone, Toad Hop, Floyds Knobs, and French Lick.

She does have people running the team, but she has decided to cosplay as some sort of supercoach. She struts along the sidelines with a hat on and a headset with mic, and is seen taking notes and pulling on the sleeves of the real coach when she has a question or a suggestion. 

Now, a lot of people say she has every right to do as she wishes, since she inherited the team upon the passing of her drug-riddled dad Jimmy.  And I agree. It's her football, so to speak, and she can do with it as she wishes.

And her supporters say she is doing what every business owner should be doing - keeping a close eye on the family moneymaker and learning the game from the ground up.

And then come people such as I, saying that in 1976, Ted Turner, having bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team (with his own money, I hasten to add: he didn't inherit anything but a million dollar-debt when his father died) and finding it hard to watch so many losing games, put on a uniform and managed the Braves for a game. They still lost, and the next morning, cooler heads prevailed, and Ted was back to watching the games from the owner's booth.

I don't care for anyone whose name includes "Irsay" in any form. She does run the place, but just as I wouldn't want to be having brain surgery and having some new owner of the hospital donning surgical garb and peering into my noodle, Ms Irsay does not need to be parading around on the sidelines while people are doing the work they have trained all their lives learning to do. That diminishes their authority. She can take notes like the rest of us do while watching the Colts: half asleep in a recliner.