It’s Irsay’s team and now it’s time for him to fix it

I’ve had the opportunity to speak to Colts owner Jim Irsay on more than one occasion and find him to be both eclectic and benevolent.

We all know of his struggles with addiction and his candid approach to tackling it along with an ongoing commitment to improving mental health through acceptance and awareness in our community.

His passion for one more Super Bowl ring fuels the multibillionaire in a way that someone like myself could never even begin to fathom, and while his loyalty to certain players and coaches over the years has been a double edged sword, there’s also been some great times for both the season ticket holders as well as those who can’t afford the price of admission and follow along faithfully via their television. 

It’s often difficult to terminate employment relationships but it’s simply a reality in the business world when things are going woefully, despite the genuine effort that those in your employment have given you for a number of years.

In a results-oriented environment such as professional sports, loyalty and decency are virtues that can only take one so far and when the expiration date of a relationship comes a calling, it’s up to make those hard decisions to reboot the organization and get it back on track in a strategic manner.

When Irsay hired Chris Ballard in 2017 there was indeed hope for optimism as he had enjoyed some success in Kansas City with the draft and represented a desperately needed new voice in the front office.  Things started well with the drafting of Quenton Nelson and Shaquille Leonard and a playoff victory in 2018, which unfortunately is the last season in which the franchise has registered a win in the coveted NFL post season.  

Sure, the sudden retirement of Andrew Luck was devastating and began the quarterback carousel that brought the Colts a plethora of largely washed-up veteran signal callers, but there’s also been a ton of questionable decisions regarding draft picks and coaching changes that went South quicker than a bird migrating to Florida. In a nutshell, the relationship between Ballard, who l believe is a fine man, and the mercurial Irsay has ran its course and it’s time to make a change.

Calling for someone to join the unemployment line is certainly an unpleasant thing for me to say, as l like Ballard and believe he’s a great family man who possesses the type of pedigree to foster a good atmosphere on the field and in the locker room. But the NFL is a vicious win now business and things have collapsed on West 56th Street and Ballard has to be the fall guy in this difficult situation. 

He drafted an inexperienced Anthony Richardson at number four based on a tremendous amount of both athleticism and potential, and certainly is also the one who convinced Irsay that it was time to bench him, as both a learning experience for the young man and the opportunity for a future Hall of Fame quarterback to serve as a conduit for a playoff run that is impossible with the current roster Ballard and company have now assembled. Throw in a bright but inexperienced head coach and you’ve got a situation that simply can’t be resolved without change.

Irsay has shown the ability to make tough decisions before by opting not to give Peyton Manning a new contract and later jettisoning Bill Polian. The question is what is taking him so long to pull the plug on his current leadership team.

Maybe he’s personally attached to Ballard and his staff, but this regime has clearly expired, and the team is going nowhere, so why not give the biggest holiday gift he can to Colts fans by cleaning house and setting the stage for a fresh start.

Sounds like a pretty easy call to me, so the question is what is Irsay waiting on to make the move?

Danny Bridges, who firmly believes Chris Ballard is a good man and has worked very hard, can be reached at (317)370-8447 or at bridgeshd@aol.com.