BroBible
Last year, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay passed away in California at the age of 65. His death was attributed to cardiac arrest linked to preexisting health issues, but things have taken a turn now that the FBI has gotten involved due to questions surrounding the official explanation.
Jim Irsay was still in middle school when his father, Robert, became the owner of the Baltimore Colts in 1972. He spent his teenage years being groomed as an heir apparent before heading to SMU for college, and he was just 24 years old when he was tapped to serve as the general manager of the franchise after the team relocated to Indianapolis in 1984.
The Colts didn’t immediately thrive under his watch, but things started to come together around the same time his dad suffered a stroke in 1995, which led to him taking on even more responsibility. The elder Irsay passed away two years later, and his scion subsequently became the youngest owner in NFL history at the age of 37.
That changing of the guard coincided with the start of the Peyton Manning Era in Indianapolis, which peaked when he led the Colts to a victory in Super Bowl XLI.
Irsay’s father was a fairly divisive personality during his tenure as an NFL owner, but his son was a decidedly more popular figure known for his philanthropic efforts and a massive collection of memorabilia he went out of his way to share with the world instead of stashing it away like many of his fellow billionaires.
He sadly passed away at the age of 65 in 2025, and his death is now being subjected to some renewed scrutiny close to a year later after the FBI felt the need to take a closer look at the circumstances surrounding it.
Robert Irsay waged a fairly public battle with alcoholism before his death at the age of 73, and his son also battled with plenty of demons involving his well-documented issues with substance abuse.
Irsay spent decades fighting an addiction to the painkillers at the center of his arrest for driving under the influence in 2014, and prior to his death, the man who admitted to going to rehab at least 15 times had been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on a regular basis since the 1990s.
In 2024, he denied that drugs or alcohol were involved in an incident where he was rushed to the hospital after being found unresponsive in his home. However, The Washington Post published a report in the wake of his death that asserted he had relapsed a couple of years before his passing and had been regularly consuming pills and injecting ketamine in the months leading up to it.
Irsay’s death certificate says he passed from cardiac arrest caused by pneumonia and heart issues (no autopsy was...
