Indiana police responded to an emergency call at Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay’s home last month for a suspected overdose, according to a FOX59 report.
Records obtained by the Indianapolis TV station said police responding to a Carmel, Indiana, residence at 4.30am on 8 December found Irsay unresponsive and having difficulty breathing.
“At this time, it is unknown what Mr Irsay had ingested prior to our arrival,” an officer wrote in the report, which listed Irsay’s prescribed medications.
According to the report, measures taken by the police to revive the 64-year-old Irsay included a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses.
On 9 January, the Colts released a statement saying that Irsay was being treated for a severe respiratory illness.
The team repeated that information on Wednesday.
“Mr Irsay continues to recover from his respiratory illness,” read a Colts statement. “We will have no further comment on his personal health, and we continue to ask that Jim and his family’s privacy be respected.”
Irsay revealed during a November 2023 interview on HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel that he had battled addiction and nearly died from a previous overdose. He said he had been to rehab “at least 15 times”.
Irsay made further headlines in the same interview when he claimed his March 2014 arrest for driving under the influence was a result of prejudice against him for being white and wealthy.
“I am prejudiced against because I’m a rich, white billionaire,” Irsay told HBO’s Andrea Kremer. “If I’m just the average guy down the block, they’re not pulling me in, of course not.”
Asked how he thinks it sounds for a white billionaire to claim that he’s a victim of prejudice, Irsay stood by his remarks.
“I don’t care what it sounds like,” Irsay said. “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.”
Police in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel pulled Irsay over after observing a man in a Toyota Highlander driving slowly, stopping in the roadway and failing to use a turn signal. Authorities discovered various prescription drugs in Irsay’s vehicle along with more than $29,000 in cash.
A toxicology report showed Irsay had the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone as well as alprazolam, which is used to treat anxiety, in his system at the time of his arrest. Officers on the scene said he had trouble reciting the alphabet and failed other field sobriety tests.
The NFL suspended Irsay for the first six of his team’s games the following season and fined him $500,000.
Irsay’s father, Robert Irsay, built his fortune through a series of successful heating and air-conditioning companies before purchasing the Baltimore Colts and controversially relocating the team to Indiana in 1984.
Jim Irsay has owned the Colts since 1997, when he emerged victorious from a legal battle with his stepmother over the ownership of the team following the death of his father.
