Indianapolis Colts principal owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon has found herself under a brighter spotlight after viral clips showed her on the sideline with a headset, notes and the playbook in hand during games.
She addressed the attention during a recent appearance on "Front Office Sports Tonight," and made clear she sees her approach as part of leading the team, not performing for it.
"I like to say on a good day I have like a fifth-grade reading level understanding of the game and just the basic concepts of what we’re trying to do, depending on the week and depending on our opponent and depending on the situation," Irsay-Gordon said, per Mark Maske of Front Office Sports. "But I think, then, it just helps to understand and to ask questions because I think one of the things, in my opinion, like being a good leader is about listening, really to understand. And I think that’s what the best teams do."
Irsay-Gordon, along with her sisters, took control of the franchise after the death of former Colts owner and CEO Jim Irsay in May 2025. The team kept head coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard after finishing last season 8-9, though both are widely viewed as sitting on hot seats this fall.
Indianapolis is 2-2 after beating the Washington Commanders 30-13 on Sunday, and it heads into this week’s matchup with the 2-2 Pittsburgh Steelers on the road. DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Colts as 2.5-point underdogs Wednesday morning.
NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk recently said he believes "other owners" should be as "actively involved in gathering the requisite information in real time" as Irsay-Gordon. Even so, she suggested her game-day routine may get a little more restrained going forward.
"With our dad passing away and kind of now me, you know, the title changed a lot of what I was doing," Irsay-Gordon added during the interview. " … [But] what I’m still doing isn’t any different. So I think that’s been something … to be more mindful of, that now people might be paying more attention to what I’m doing."
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