Copyright Heavy.
The Indianapolis Colts climbed to 7-1 after dismantling the Tennessee Titans 38-14 on Sunday. They have a firm grasp on first place in the AFC south with a 2.5-game lead on the Jacksonville Jaguars. While I would think the main reason for the team’s success is the play of quarterback Daniel Jones, some are attributing the Colts’ hot start to the sideline presence of owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon. I personally don’t, but when you’re winning I guess it’s fun to point to different reasons why. Former NFL MVP Cam Newton said on the “4th and 1” podcast that he thinks Irsay-Gordon’s presence (with headset and everything) has absolutely had an impact on the team this year. “She’s a big stepper now! … She is making her presence felt, and it’s leading to wins,” Newton said. “We’ve never seen a team have this type of run, like you said, in the last 25 years. “She’s doing something right, and it’s extremely commendable. It raises eyebrows and the thought process in here. Do we need more women in sports? Because what they provide is something that most men would overlook. “Some say women are more organized, detail-oriented, more sharp. Not a lot of times head coaches want the involvement of upper management. Why? Because they may feel that they’re micromanaging them. But, at the same time, if I’m paying you, you don’t get to tell me how I should run my team.” Irsay-Gordon took over when her father died Long-time owner of the Colts Jim Irsay passed away in late May of this year, and his daughters – Irsay-Gordon, Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson – inherited the team to carry on his legacy and, of course, make some money in the process. Irsay-Gordon took over as the principal owner and CEO and talked about her decision to have a headset on the sidelines to listen to communication between the coaches. “I need to be able to say, ‘Is this person full of BS? Do they even know what they’re talking about?’” she said in June. “I think one of the things being on the headset has really helped me learn is, to the question earlier, it is such a complex organism, a football team and how it operates. …. You could say, ‘Oh, that person ran that route wrong.’ When you learn, ‘Oh, someone tagged the wrong wide receiver, and it wasn’t really the player’s fault. It was the person that called it. “That’s been very valuable because it also helps us be able to know, where do we need to make tweaks? What resources do we need? What do we need to fix? So much comes down to how we operate and how things work and the headsets, … I would suggest it for anyone else that has to pay coaches and GMs millions and millions of dollars. It helps you make a less expensive mistake, potentially.” Does Carlie Irsay-Gordon’s presence on the sideline really help? Count me amongst those that think Irsay-Gordon wearing a headset anywhere – let alone on the sidelines – listening to the inner workings of the coaching staff on game days is a terrible idea. Who wants their boss monitoring every detail of their job? It’s not so much that she’s going to hear some appalling language and have a conniption. She’s been around football enough to understand that some abnormal colorful language will be used. But, is it possible that any human is going to do the same job with their boss listening as they might when they know they are in a safe space with fellow employees? I firmly believe that if Jones was terrible and the Colts were 2-6, fans would be calling on her to fire herself.
