Bill Simmons, founder of The Ringer and Grantland, is done hiding his feelings on Indianapolis Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon and her sideline behavior.
Irsay-Gordon, who took over running the Colts for her late father, Jim Irsay, is consistently making headlines for standing on the sideline during games. She stands on the sideline and takes notes. She’s been spotted at times wearing a headset, too. NFL teams typically only have a certain number of available headsets, so when she does this, she’s taking away the headset from a member of the coaching staff or team.
Simmons believes it’s “nuts” that Irsay-Gordon is still doing this.
“I’m not gonna tiptoe around this anymore. And I know it’s been a topic the last couple of weeks; I think the owner on the sidelines taking notes is (expletive) nuts. I think it’s nuts! I think it’s bonkers!” Simmons ranted on his latest podcast, according to Awful Announcing. “I can’t believe she does this, and I can’t believe people in her life haven’t talked her out of it.
“And now there’s this push of like, ‘Oh, no, no, she’s really into it.’ If a male owner was doing this, we would be ridiculing this guy til the cows come home…we would think it was so f*cking funny if some rich guy, male owner was on the sideline with a notebook hovering over and giving advice to the coach. Even Jerry Jones wouldn’t do that! And Irsay’s daughter is doing it, and we’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, well, you know, she cares about the team.’ Why are we making excuses for how weird this is?”
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Irsay-Gordon has defended her decisions in the past. However, it’s fair to suggest that if Jerry Jones or Robert Kraft started doing this every Sunday, it would be a No. 1 story on ESPN every morning.
For now, the Colts owner appears to be avoiding mainstream media criticism for her sideline behavior.
Colts owner defends her sideline behavior
Irsay-Gordon previously defended her decision making on the sideline.
“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 told the Colts’ official website in June of 2025. “‘I need to be able to say, is this person full of BS? Do they even know what they’re talking about? And I think one of the things that being on the headset has really helped me learn is to the question earlier, it’s such a complex organism of football team and how it operates.”
The Colts improved to 2-2 on the year with a win over the Commanders in London on Sunday.
