Like so many of us, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay can’t help but post through it sometimes. This time, however, he might have gotten himself in big trouble.
The Cleveland Browns pulled off a dramatic 39-38 victory over the Colts on Sunday. Two controversial officiating calls against Indianapolis in the final minute of the game certainly seemed to play a pivotal role in that outcome.
Tuesday, Irsay shared an update on X for Colts fans. The first part of the post was about rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson’s surgery, which apparently went well. The second part of the post was about the calls, which the owner says the league has since admitted were wrong.
“The NFL admits and understands that they did not make the correct calls at end of Sunday’s Colts/Browns Game,” wrote Irsay. “I believe we need to institute Instant Replay for all calls, including Penalties, in the last two minutes of All Games.”
https://twitter.com/JimIrsay/status/1716989914040897559
That sounds good, but the bad news is that Irsay seems to have violated a pretty clear NFL rule by sharing that information publicly.
The NFL communicates with teams on a weekly basis about various calls. Team officials are prohibited from commenting publicly on those discussions. Now, a team owner has publicly said the league admitted to officiating mistakes. Stay tuned …
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) October 25, 2023
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero noted that team officials are not allowed to share how the post-game conversations with the league go regarding officiating. That sounds an awful lot like what Irsay did.
Of course, running his mouth isn’t something that the Colts owner has worried about too much in the past. He stuck his foot in his mouth during the Jonathan Taylor negotiations. He’s taken digs at franchise legend Peyton Manning. He once gave away his team’s draft strategy on Twitter. He didn’t do a great job handling criticism of Jeff Saturday’s hiring. And his weird social media videos have come back to haunt him.
If anyone with the Colts is capable of taking Irsay’s phone away from him, anytime is a good time.