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Colts' Next Owner? Casey Irsay Talks About Her Team
Irsay's Daughter Serves As Colts VP
POSTED: 5:56 pm EST November 6,
2008
UPDATED: 9:35 am EST November 7,
2008
INDIANAPOLIS -- At 25 years old, Casey Irsay is already working for the team she's known her entire life, a team that Colts' owner Jim Irsay says she may run someday.6News' Sports Director Dave Furst sat down with Jim and Casey Irsay to talk about Casey's upbringing with the Colts, the meaning of a Super Bowl championship and the future of the franchise.Making History
"She was 1 1/2, 2 years old when she was toddling around the team," Jim Irsay said. "(She couldn't be a ball girl) and pick up jockstraps with naked men walking around in the locker room. But it's been interesting because, as she goes on this journey, it's kind of like being a frontiers' man, a frontiers' woman."Casey, in her second season as a vice president in the team's marketing and community relations division, is one of only a handful of women working in NFL front offices."The thing that's most awesome about Casey is that you know there's no entitlement. She's a hard worker," Jim Irsay said. "That's the thing that makes you very proud."Casey credited her dad with teaching her the business."It's been great to learn under him because he always knows the right things to say," she said.While Casey said she was apprehensive about attending team meetings at first, her father said his staff has learned not to underestimate her."People might use more kid gloves or something early on, until they realized how tough she is," he said.Casey and her two sisters -- one older, one younger -- have been around the Colts for their entire lives, as the team was handed down from their grandfather, Bob, to their father.Casey even has a horseshoe tattoo on one of her wrists."People always say, 'You really like the Colts, don't you?' and I say, 'Yeah, a little bit,'" she laughed.Super Bowl LegacySuper Bowl XLI was an especially meaningful time for the Irsay family, as they watched the Colts triumph over the Chicago Bears in Miami."We won the Super Bowl and we're going down in the elevator and I can just remember [Casey] saying, 'What does this mean?' and I'm like, 'It means we're world champions! We're world champions!'" Jim Irsay said.Casey said she knew the win meant a lot to her father."As for our family, I was so happy to win. My mom, sisters, we were all happy to win, but I was just happy for my dad," she said.Franchise FutureJim Irsay said he has some big plans for his future and for the future of his team.Casey, who's dating A.J. Foyt IV, grandson of 4-time Indianapolis 500 champion A.J. Foyt, didn't give away her plans for marriage or children, but her dad said he's looking forward to being a grandfather."If she has four kids and the other two have four, that's 12 and if all those four have four, then we have 48 great-grandchildren," he said, to nervous laughs from Casey. "But that's a long prospect."As for the team, Jim Irsay has no reservations about naming his one-day successor."I think there's no doubt that (my daughters) will (follow in my footsteps) and have begun the process," he said.He's also made Casey a deal that might make many Colts fans cringe: "When Peyton retires, then it's her team."
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