Carroll Angeles

The owner's kid had 50 big big brothers.
It wasn't all idolatry and good times.
Volatile 25 years
Robert Irsay had a violent temper and a crippling drinking problem. In his earlier, more clearheaded, days,
he had built a fortune in construction and ventilation. He was a brilliant and ruthless businessman, but he
knew nothing of running a football team.
He owned the Colts for 25 years. He had 14 head or interim head coaches.
Robert was a Chicago guy, and in 1986, nothing mattered more than the preseason game at Chicago's
Soldier Field.
"All his cronies were there," Jim recalled. "It was a preseason game, but for him it was like the Super
Bowl."
The vodka flowed. The Bears scored. The vodka flowed some more. The Bears scored some more. Robert
heaved himself to his feet at halftime. He headed for the locker room in full fury.
Jim and assistant general manager Bob Terpening tried to stop him. They begged, cajoled, reasoned. Robert
charged. A security guard stopped him at the locker room door. The owner put him up against the wall and
barged into the locker room.
Jim waited outside, fearful, fretting, until his father burst back out the door and blew past him. Jim entered
quietly. He approached coach Rod Dowhower timidly.
"Rod, my God, what happened?" he asked. "Did he fire you?"
The coach smiled.
"You know, it was a very interesting conversation," Dowhower said. "He told me he loved me like a son
and he started crying a little and he left."
Son unlike the father
What Jim did in the early years was attempt to forestall, or clean up, his father's messes. Not all Robert's
tantrums ended in such tranquility.
The Colts went 2-12 in 1974. Robert fired Howard Schnellenberger and hired Ted Marchibroda, who
transformed the franchise. The Colts went 10-4 in 1975. Marchibroda was named the NFL's Coach of the
Year.
That didn't save him after a 1976 preseason loss at Detroit. Robert stormed into the locker room and fired
his coach. The players erupted. They fired threats, curses and chairs. They cleaned up and filed onto two
buses, still smoldering.
Jim climbed onto each bus, in turn, in tears. He apologized for his father. He begged for the players'
understanding.
"When he walked off those buses, there wasn't a guy on our team who didn't have tremendous respect for
Jimmy," defensive tackle Joe Ehrmann said. "Here was a 17-year-old kid who had the moral courage to risk
rejection and speak from his own conviction, his own truth."