Jim Irsay, the straight-shooting, hard-living, football-loving owner and chief executive of the Indianapolis Colts who spent his entire adult life around the team that his father bought more than a half-century ago, died on Wednesday in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 65.
His death, in a hotel room, was announced in a statement by Pete Ward, the Colts’ chief operating officer. The statement said Mr. Irsay died in his sleep that afternoon but did not cite a cause. His death certificate said the immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest, with acute pneumonia, chronic atrial fibrillation and cardiac arrhythmia as contributing conditions. He lived in Carmel, Ind.
Mr. Irsay had health issues in recent years, including hip surgery, which left him reliant on walking poles. He was also dealing with an addiction to alcohol.
But through it all, he remained an active and forceful presence in National Football League circles. He was on the league’s powerful finance committee and, unlike his fellow owners, rarely shied away from offering his opinions to reporters; he commented even on sensitive topics, like contract disputes, fellow owners and their worthiness to own their teams.
He was also an active and visible cheerleader for the Colts, sending inspirational messages on social media to fire up fans before games.
By his own proclamation, Mr. Irsay considered himself one of the N.F.L.’s standard-bearers. He would often point out that George Halas Sr., the founding owner of the Chicago Bears and a founder of the N.F.L., attended his wedding in 1980. Mr. Irsay also did not hide from one of the most controversial episodes in N.F.L. history: his father’s decision to move the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis on a snowy night in 1984. That move was derided as an example of the N.F.L.’s bottomless greed and willingness to abandon fans and their city in search of more money.