The team said in a statement that Jim Arsai, owner and CEO of Indianapolis Colts, died on Wednesday. It was 65.
The team said: “Jim’s dedication to the passion of Indianapolis Colts in addition to his generosity, his commitment to society, and most importantly, that his love for his family was not unprecedented.”
There was no cause for death immediately, but the team said that Arsai died “peacefully in his sleep” on Wednesday afternoon.
AJ Mast / AP
Irrsai, former Baltimore Coch Coch, spent most of his little life around the team, including a work as a ball during the games.
“Some of Jim’s memories came from his training camps to work in Baltimore and increasing relations with the players, coaches and employees who considered them his extended family,” said Colts. “He worked in each section before being appointed the youngest general manager in the team’s history in 1984 when the dowries reached Indianapolis.”
This transition from Baltimore to Indianapolis, which was suddenly implemented by Robert Arsai in March 1984 to avoid the seizure of the team by the city of Baltimore, will remain a painful place for the former fans in Maryland.
The team said: “Jim’s love and appreciation to the American Football Association in addition to his history, traditions and principles affected him to become a host of the game throughout his fiftieth years in the league.”
Jim Ersai acquired the only ownership of the team after his father’s death in 1997. Under his leadership, the team drafted Biton Manning No. 1 in 1998. He was widely considered one of the greatest midfielders who played the game ever, and has helped in handing the Indianapolis Coletus first so far the title of Super Bowl in 2006 only.
“I am sad to hear the death of Jim Ersai,” Manning books On Instagram Wednesday. “He was an incredibly generous and emotional owner, and I will always be his debtor to give me my start in the American Football Association. He has not forgotten his love for the file and the city of Indy. His impact will not be forgotten on the players who played with him.”
Irsay was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of his leadership under the effect, as the police said he had several bottles of prescribed drugs at the time. Public prosecutors claimed that he had lived positively for several phosphors. In the end, he admitted guilt on a misdemeanor mission Run a vehicle while drunk. It was later The American Football Association suspended it for six games And a fine of $ 500,000.
Irsay was recently in a wheelchair in the wake of two separate surgeries. One of them was to fix a problem that affected his left leg, thigh and back vehicles that stem from the fall in his bathroom, which affected his nerves, which led to continuous numbness, according to CBS WTTV. Then he underwent surgery in mid -May to care for a serious blood tumor, according to WTTV.
Arsai did not speak to the correspondents during the recent US Football Association project as he usually did.
His story is one of its kind. When he was a teenager, he threw footballs with Gonerbbe, Johnny Unitas and Port Jones. He repeatedly relied on the lessons he learned from rubbing the elbows with some of the most important game owners – Al Davis, Lamar Hunt, Wellington Mara and Art Rooney – where they worked on the players’ strike in 1982 and implementing the salary cover.
He headed the greatest quarter of a football football thanks to Manning, the Dahir Andrew Lac, the General Manager of the Celebrity Hall Bill Polian and the Celebrity Hall coach, Tony Dunji.
Irsay dealt with everything from ticket sales to public relations, as it rose through the organization until watching the total number 1 to choose John Elway Trade to Denver in 1983.
When Malik’s duties took over after his father’s death in 1997, things were different. Manning’s arrival in Irsai – Al -Mahjan – helped to create local emotional followers that were not previously present but still strong today.
It was not always easy either. When the inheritance tax threatened by 55 % on the team, the younger Irsay found enough money to keep family business. When his most prominent players were about to benefit from the free agency, Irsay is often topped by the dollar to maintain them.
But football was only part of the Irsay story.
Millions have spent the purchase of the original manuscripts of Jack Kirwak, which defines a generation “on the road” and anonymous alcohol addicts “and made them routinely available to the audience.
His growing musical collection constantly included machines and materials from the Beatles team, James Brown, Prince, Eric Kalpeon, Jimmy Hendrix, Elton John, Johnny Cash and Jerry Garcia; Signed presidential documents; The original “Wanted” sticker for John Wilkes Booth; 1953 Jackie Robinson Pat; The title of Muhammad Ali from 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle;” Even the saddle from the triple crown of honesty.
Irsay also became a friend like Stephen Stills and John Mellencamp, inspired by the words of Bob Dylan and detained Hunter S.. Thompson, self -described.
“It is extremely fun to have these pieces, and the guitars are always more interesting, in some respects, because you can play them, unlike a book, manuscript or painting. You can become a quarter,” Ersai said during the summer of 2016.
But Irsay was also his struggles.
He was addicted to alcohol and his professional success could not be removed from a continuous battle with pain relievers. In an interview with HBO SPORTS in November 2023, he admitted that he was rehabilitating at least 15 times and once.
The low point may have come in March 2014 when he was arrested near his home in Carmel while driving. When the officers searched the car, they found approximately $ 30,000 cash and several described pill. Five and a half months later, he admitted that he was guilty of a misdemeanor of operating a vehicle while he was drunk, and the US Football Association Commissioner Roger Godel Arsai suspended six games and a fine of $ 500,000.
Irsay described the absence as tragic.
“I couldn’t even imagine how difficult it is,” said Bat McAfee, the incident. “You are talking about a man who was about dowries throughout his life, embodying horse’s horse.”
However, it was wise enough to allow the police almost freely to build a team that won after a number of games of the normal season a decade ago (115).
Regardless of the Irsay photos that wearing a tie wrapped around his forehead on the cover of a magazine, and throwing footballs in a suit, or his words on Twitter, he was a shrewd businessman with a big heart.
When the dowries won the Super Bowl, he sent even an episode to the rushing champion twice Edgerrin James, who left in a free agency before the championship season.
“The man grew up with this team. He has a lot of knowledge and knowledge. He is a football man through him. He passes through his veins and has a lot of wisdom to share all of us. It greatly affects,” said Chuck Pagano in January 2015.
