INDIANAPOLIS - Bob Irsay took the Colts out of Baltimore nearly a quarter-century ago, relocating the beloved team to Indianapolis. On Saturday, his son, Jim Irsay, will bring the Colts back. They'll face the Ravens at M T Bank Stadium in a playoff game; the winner will be one win from the Super Bowl.
Time doesn't heal all wounds. In fact, games like this weekend's seem to open them. The anger and loathing for the Irsay name haven't receded.
Personally, I don't understand that, because I don't live that way, Jim Irsay said in a wide-ranging interview earlier this week from his plush office in the Colts' headquarters. When I put my head on the pillow, there's not one person on this planet that I wish ill will to. You're talking about something that's a long time ago and you're talking about something where everything that transpired back then and what happened and the people who were in charge of the city and state and this ownership, none of those people are present anymore.
If you believe his words and those of friends and associates, about the only thing father and son had in common was a name, a name that is still cursed on nearly every street corner in Baltimore. When the elder Irsay died in 1997, his son inherited the Colts franchise. Whether he wanted it or not, he also inherited the full umbrage of Baltimore football fans, a faithful group that's still reeling from the loss of their Colts in March 1984.
But just as the Indianapolis Colts aren't the Baltimore Colts, Jim Irsay is not Bob Irsay. They say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, said Jim Irsay, 47, unless the tree is on top of a hill. There was probably a hill there.
He laughed. The younger Irsay is careful not to disparage his father, but he makes it clear he's running the Colts franchise the way he wants. I love my dad and I supported him as a son, but I know that what I stand behind are my own footsteps, what I've done as a man and what I've done in being a steward of this franchise, he said.
The two men's footsteps - their personalities, interests and management styles - are very different. The elder Irsay ran his team from afar, renowned for meddling in decisions, throwing around threats and showing a cranky, abrasive side when he drank. Jim Irsay is around his team every day.
He lives in Indianapolis and comes to the office most days. Monday, he wore a jogging suit as he sat behind a giant wooden desk, surrounded by family photos, football memorabilia and a book on the 500 greatest rock albums. One photo over his shoulder was of a gravestone, but it wasn't his father's.
Robert Johnson, he said, the great blues guitarist. When he speaks, he threads spirituality into the discussion and routinely quotes a wide variety of famous thinkers - from Bob Dylan and John Lennon to Keats and Kipling. At his home, he has one of Elvis Presley's guitars on display, but the real prize of his collection might be the original manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On The Road, a 120-foot-long scroll for which Irsay paid nearly $2.
5 million in 2001. He's not your stereotypical head of a billion-dollar corporation, said Pete Ward, the Colts' senior vice president, who started with the team as an intern in 1981 and was one of the few who made the move to Indianapolis. I think a lot of people viewed Bob Irsay as impetuous.
I think Jim is really the antithesis to that, Ward said. He observes, he analyzes, he doesn't overreact. He makes decisions after he's fully analyzed situations.
Jim Irsay was 24 when his father moved the team. He was working for the Colts in the front office at the time. He chooses his words carefully when discussing the topic, but friends say he had some guilt - even embarrassment - over the move.
What was he supposed to do, fold his arms and say, "No, Dad, I'm staying here'? said John Ziemann, head of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band at the time and now president of the Marching Ravens. He had no choice in the matter.
The day after the Colts left Baltimore, Ziemann said, Jim Irsay called him to apologize. I think Jimmy was more trying to get into the community, but it was clear Bob Irsay wasn't interested in that, Ziemann said. Jimmy's just the opposite of his dad.
If the Colts would've stayed in Baltimore, Jimmy would have been very much ingrained in the community. But he had to go where the family business went. Recently, a new generation of Colts fans feared Jim Irsay would shop the team, which needed a new stadium, to a new city.
Irsay said he drew from his father's experiences while negotiating with government officials, who agreed to build the Colts a $500 million stadium scheduled to open in 2008. I did have a chance to see and observe what went wrong, he said. I was very aware and cautious as we were trying to create some permanence.
Irsay said he understands how passionately fans cared about the Colts - unlike his father, a Chicagoan, Jim Irsay lived in Maryland at the time - and is looking forward to this weekend's game. He has been to Baltimore several times over the years, most recently for last year's Colts-Ravens' season opener. I don't have one ounce of anything but good feelings for Baltimore, he said.
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