The Indianapolis Colts have officially named Carley Irsay-Gordon as the team’s new CEO and lead owner. Irsay-Gordon was the favorite to take on the largest role following her father, Jim Irsay’s, untimely death last month.
As she gets ready to assume the responsibilities, anecdotes are emerging from within the franchise about Irsay-Gordon’s decades of experience.
“Her family business, of course, happens to be football. And one way Irsay-Gordon worked to learn the family business was by putting on a headset during games and listening to how coaches communicate with each other in a high-stakes, no-time-or-room-for-error environment,” JJ Stankevitz wrote on the team’s website.
She explains that this is not a new practice, in fact, Irsay-Gordon has been on headset since the Pagano/Manning days.
“I think one of the things that I learned in going through, even as back as when we hired Chuck Pagano (in 2012), is that sort of accelerated my, ‘I need to learn more about this,’” Irsay-Gordon said. “‘I need to be able to say, is this person full of BS? Do they even know what they’re talking about?’”
Along with her headset, she can be seen on the sideline with a pen in hand and the full call sheet in her grasp.
“You could say, ‘Oh, that person ran that route wrong,’” Irsay-Gordon continued. “When you learn to find, ‘Oh, someone tagged the wrong wide receiver, and it wasn’t really the player’s fault – it was the person that called it.’ I think 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.”
Coaching Staff Is Impressed By Her Work Ethic
Head coach Shane Steichen is impressed with just how good of a grip Irsay-Gordon has on the game of football.
“As far as football, she’s around and she understands it,” head coach Shane Steichen said last month. “When you talk football with her, she gets it. She understands it. She goes over the defensive stuff, the offensive stuff. She’s been involved since I’ve been here from Day One, very hands on and she’s been tremendous. I think she’s going to do a phenomenal job.”
Offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter, who has been a part of several different NFL franchises, admires the uniqueness of her approach
“It’s been really cool. She’s been in a ton of different meetings (and) practices around,” Jim Bob Cooter said. “A lot of the stuff that we do as coaches, you don’t often get people in that in those roles, in those meetings… She’s very, very knowledgeable, but very interested in gaining that knowledge. That’s how she’s gotten to this spot.”
BR Labels Shane Steichen ‘Most Likely To Be Fired’
Carly Irsay-Gordon might be tasked with a big decision to make in her very first year as head coach Shane Steichen has been labeled the most likely NFL coach to be fired this season by Bleacher Report podcast.
“Shane Steichen feels like the one- even though he’s number one on this list- feel’s like the one where people would be like ‘Alright, you got a bad shake’,” the host said. “‘Nobody could win with fricking Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones, you’ve got a good offensive mind, let’s bring you in here and give you another shot’.”
In this hypothetical, the host is presenting his belief that while Steichen’s time in Indy is the most likely coach/team relationship to end, Steichen is conversely the most likely coach to get another crack at leading a team.
Also on BR’s list was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, Atlanta Falcons’ Raheem Morris, and the Miami Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel.
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