Carroll Angeles

Learned from the best
Through it all, Jim watched and listened. He asked questions incessantly and of everyone. He pestered
general manager Joe Thomas. He watched film with Marchibroda. He studied Rooney and Mara and Cooke
and their management models and styles with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, New York
Giants and Washington Redskins, respectively.
"I knew the day would come when I would be the owner and I could do it my way," Irsay said.
That day came in 1997, when Robert died and Jim took over. By then, said Tony Dungy, Colts coach from
2002-08, Jim Irsay had evolved into a quirky but old-fashioned owner in the Rooney and Mara mold.
As a Pittsburgh rookie in 1977, Dungy recalls Rooney telling newcomers they were Steelers now, that they
owed the team, its fans and its community their best effort and behavior.
"When we talked about me coming to the Colts in 2002, Jim talked at length about building community
with the fans and the feeling that we were an Indianapolis team," recalled Dungy, who spent 10 years as
player and coach with Rooney's Steelers and a training camp with Mara's Giants.
"We didn't have the history of the Steelers or Giants, the two or three generations of fans. We had to
connect, and that was very important to him. I think he's very much a throwback to those guys."
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue recognized that commitment and developing potential as early as 1992.
He appointed Irsay to the four-man committee that conceived the league's salary cap, a structure that has
produced an era of unprecedented popularity and prosperity.
Irsay implemented Rooney's and Mara's management model. He hired Bill Polian as club president after the
1997 season and gave him relative autonomy.
The Colts went 3-13 in Jim's first year as owner and repeated with Polian aboard in 1998. Then began a 12-
year run that produced the NFL's best regular-season record, 138-54, an unprecedented seven consecutive
12-victory seasons, 11 playoff appearances, two Super Bowls and the 2006 championship.
"He took the Colts from the bottom to the top," Ward said, "and in a very short time span."
Bump in the road
The string broke this season. Franchise quarterback Peyton Manning is out indefinitely after Sept. 8 neck
surgery. The Colts are 0-6 and struggling. Irsay is undismayed.
"The way I look at it, everything is based around us having a chance to win it again, so you look forward to
getting that first win, but at the same time, the future is bright," he said. "It's a real possibility to see Peyton
come back and have three or four more great years like John Elway (who won Super Bowls the final two
years of his career with the Denver Broncos).
"We just have to keep surrounding Peyton with the right type of players."
Irsay has fought his own demons, including a prescription pain medication addiction he said is well behind
him.
He chairs the NFL's legislative committee and sits on its finance and Super Bowl advisory committees.
Unlike his father, he invests heavily in the team; the Colts' player payroll has ranked among the NFL's top
10 every year since 1998 despite the team's small-market status.
Still, Irsay has no illusions. Billionaire owners with $720 million stadiums built almost exclusively with