Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay didn’t get caught on the hot mic. It was not being secretly filmed without his permission. He was not being deceived. During an interview on HBO’s “Real Sports,” Irsay knew the cameras were rolling and he wanted to tell the world how he really felt.
The show takes a critical look at Irvine’s life, discussing his wealthy yet difficult upbringing, his sister lost in a car accident, his desire to acquire expensive collectibles, and the pressures of being an NFL general manager at 24 and an owner at 37. But perhaps the most famous and influential of the interviews Irsay discussed with drug and alcohol addicts was the first time he publicly admitted that he had overdosed and nearly died.
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It made me wonder how much strength it took for even a billionaire to discuss what it feels like to rock dance. When an influential person admits their own struggles and admits that sometimes life is hard, people’s lives can be touched, changed, and saved.
I will always respect Irsay’s willingness to talk about it because addiction doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor or black or white. It is not selective, and it shows no mercy.
But what I don’t appreciate is the reason Irsay dismissed the charge of driving while intoxicated — he pleaded guilty in 2014 after a toxicology report showed Irsay had oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam in his system when he was pulled over. passed by the police. There is also Video recording When a shaky Irsay is asked to take a field sobriety test.
But in a “Real Sports” interview, Irsay said the arrest is still “wrong.” “He just had hip surgery and was in the car for 45 minutes” so he couldn’t walk straight. When asked by award-winning sportswriter Andrea Creamer why he disagreed, Irsay quickly brushed aside any sympathy for his addiction battle with a tone-deaf, gaslighting response.
Irsay criticized the Carmel, Ind., police, saying, “I have prejudice against me because I’m a rich white billionaire.” “If I’m a normal person, they’re not pulling me, of course.”
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Colts owner Jim Irsay When arrested by police in 2014, he described the professor as a ‘rich white billionaire’.
Cramer followed up and asked Irsay if he understood how ridiculous it was for him to say that the police were “prejudiced by a rich white billionaire.” She graciously gave Irsay a chance to explain his words. Instead, it doubled.
“I don’t care what it looks like,” Irsay said. “It’s the truth. Andrea, I could give a damn what people think or how anything looks or sounds. The truth is the truth and I know the truth.
When I first heard these comments, I was surprised by the reluctance. Irsay’s inability to admit that it was his career that probably messed up a decade ago. But the parts I can’t get over are when he compares being a “rich, white billionaire” to being a “below average person” and says the police treat the former worse than the latter. The world I live in, with the experiences I had as a young black man, the police still treat you differently, for less.
Police can’t tell you how much money your car windows make, but they can tell you what they look like.
Before I had the opportunity to work in the NFL and NBA and sit in the same room with a “rich white billionaire,” I was a black high school sports reporter in northwest Indiana. A few years ago, while driving home at night from a holiday girls’ basketball game, I got pulled over. When I rolled down my window to talk to the white policeman, he asked me why he stopped me. I said “I don’t know” because I wasn’t sure. His response? “Well, you weren’t running fast. You were going too fast to get my attention.”
How would you feel if it happened to you?
I did nothing wrong, but this officer asked to see my license and registration anyway. I still live in Illinois, and after I explained it to him, I was a college graduate, working my first full-time journalism job, and then he just relaxed. After a few minutes of looking at my information and turning on the lights in my car, he handed me my stuff back and sent me on my way, saying, “You’re too far from home.”
No traffic violation.
There is no ticket
There is no reason to drag me.
I’ll never forget the feeling of being raced to drive my own car, a feeling I accumulated while working thousands of hours in college. And this is one story of many. Even sharing is not the point to be sad or sad. Not to make it seem like all police are bad, racist or bigoted. A darker complexion is an introduction to a different perspective and a different world where one may experience prejudice and injustice. I don’t know if Ersay ever went to my world. But I know a few who have – NFL players. And better yet, his players.
According to The Washington Post, In the story from 2020Nearly 60 percent of NFL players are black, and it’s fair to imagine how Irsay’s comments went down in the locker room on West 56th Street after the idea was announced Tuesday.
I’m not going to ask them. That would not be fair to them. No matter how they feel, he is still their boss. He signs their check. They are trying to elevate a career that they know can be taken away from them at any moment. But the reason I feel so confident in saying that Irsay’s comments about police disclosures can be viewed as short-sighted by those in the field is because of the difficult conversations a few years ago.
The whole world – mine and Irsay’s – watched as white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of black man George Floyd for several minutes in May 2020. Leave it in him. Chauvin was later charged with second-degree murder, a decision Monday that overturned Chauvin’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
The video of the killing highlighted the interconnectedness of bigotry, racism and police brutality, and the NFL — known to have its own issues with race — couldn’t ignore it. The phrases “End Racism” and “It Takes All of Us” are on the back of the Lucas Oil Stadium end zones three years after Floyd’s death.
The NFL has been forced to engage in oftentimes prohibited discussions with several players, including members of the Colts. Irsay in 2010 On social media in 2020, he said, “Of course all lives matter, but the phrase ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ is about the unequal treatment of black Americans. It doesn’t say or imply that only black lives matter.
Contrasting that sentiment with Irsay’s claims that he’s treated unfairly by the police now that he’s white and rich is incredibly tone-deaf. It would be unfortunate for Irsay not to recognize his opportunity for power at this point in his life. But it may not be as unfortunate as these comments undermine the good he tried to do by talking to “Real Sport” in the first place.
To be clear, Irsay is not some kind of villain. I’ve seen his big heart and generosity firsthand, and this one interview shouldn’t be a blanket indictment of character. His candor about the struggle is admirable, and “Hit the blameHis family’s initiative to fight addiction and mental illness has helped many in need. That should be respected. But when someone who is supposed to be a leader in their community makes an insensitive comment about race, plays the victim instead of taking responsibility for their actions, well, not only is they failing their responsibility, they are only responsible for the backlash.
Irsay stood by his comments on Wednesday, sending a series of social media posts to portray himself as the victim, while simultaneously targeting others who dared to miss the point and perhaps point out that he was “rich, white.” Billionaire” is more privileged than prejudiced.
This look should be used as an opportunity to look in the mirror and then the world around. Because for many of us—those who aren’t white and aren’t rich—he doesn’t exist.
(Photo: Zach Bollinger/ICON Sportwire via Getty Images)
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