Indiana State Police responded to a 911 call last month at the home of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay for a suspected overdose, police said. a FOX59 report.
Documents obtained by the Indianapolis TV station show that at 4:30 a.m. on December 8 at a home in Carmel, Indiana, police found Irsay unresponsive and having trouble breathing.
“It is unknown at this time what Mr. Irsay had taken prior to our arrival,” an officer wrote in the report, which listed Irsay’s prescription medications.
According to the report, the measures police took to revive Irsay, 64, included a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses.
On January 9, the Colts released a statement saying Irsay was being treated for a serious respiratory illness.
The team reiterated that information on Wednesday.
“Mr. Irsay continues to recover from his respiratory illness,” a Colts statement said. “We will not comment further on his personal health and we continue to ask that the privacy of Jim and his family is respected.”
Irsay revealed during a November 2023 interview on HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel that he had battled addiction and almost died from a previous overdose. He said he had been to rehab “at least 15 times.”
Irsay made even more headlines in the same interview when he claimed that his March 2014 arrest for drunk driving was the result of prejudice against him because he was white and wealthy.
“I’m biased because I’m a rich, white billionaire,” Irsay told HBO’s Andrea Kremer. “If I’m just the average guy, they won’t pull me in, of course not.”
When asked how he thinks it sounds when a white billionaire claims he is the victim of bias, Irsay stood by his comments.
“I don’t care what it sounds like,” Irsay said. “It’s the truth…I don’t give a damn what people think, what something sounds like or sounds like. The truth is the truth, and I know the truth.”
Police in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel stopped Irsay after seeing a man in a Toyota Highlander who was driving slowly, stopped in the roadway and failed to use a turn signal. Authorities discovered several prescription drugs in Irsay’s car, along with more than $29,000 in cash.
A toxicology report showed that Irsay had the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone and alprazolam, which is used to treat anxiety, in his system at the time of his arrest. Officers on the scene said he had difficulty reciting the alphabet and failed other sobriety tests.
The NFL suspended Irsay for his team’s first six games the following season and fined him $500,000.
Irsay’s father, Robert Irsay, built his fortune through a series of successful heating and air conditioning businesses before purchasing the Baltimore Colts and controversially moving the team to Indiana in 1984.
Jim Irsay has owned the Colts since 1997, when he emerged victorious from a legal battle with his stepmother over ownership of the team following the death of his father.