Indianapolis Colts proprietor Jim Irsay appears to be like and seems like Johnny Cash, attired in black and talking in a gravelly voice.
It’s apropos. Irsay is in the midst of a nationwide tour together with his all-star band and his rock, sports and history collection, which incorporates classic fashions as soon as owned by Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Prince and Kurt Cobain and is insured for greater than $200 million. “It is unquestionably the greatest guitar collection in the world,” he boasted.
The Jim Irsay Band’s subsequent cease will likely be in San Francisco, the place they may play a free live performance Saturday at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.
“It’s been an incredible journey,” Irsay mentioned throughout a wide-ranging, hour-long Zoom interview late Monday, during which he veered from behind-the-scenes title dropping about rock ‘n’ roll royalty (Bob Dylan instructing him the significance of self-reinvention) to his many years as an influence dealer within the NFL (league co-founder George Halas attending Irsay’s 1980 wedding ceremony). Throughout, the eclectic Irsay sprinkled in his ideas on spiritualism.
With a life outlined by the slam-bang worlds {of professional} soccer and rock music, Irsay believes the NFL will solely get richer by way of profitable gaming and leisure ventures, pushing franchise values to $30 billion and resulting in a European division in 10 to twenty years. (Forbes ranks the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots because the most valuable teams in the NFL at $8 billion and $6.4 billion, respectively.)
“Interest in the game is high in London, Germany, France and Italy to some extent,” mentioned Irsay, who envisions a four-team division. “I’m actually surprised there hasn’t been a team in London by now. It really is unfortunate we no longer have the Concorde to ease travel. But that money went into phones.”
Irsay dismissed the potential for a company proudly owning an NFL franchise, regardless of stories of Apple Inc.
AAPL,
expressing an curiosity in buying soccer behemoth Manchester United and Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
shelling out $1 billion yearly for unique broadcast rights to NFL video games on Thursday nights (Amazon Prime additionally broadcasts Premier League soccer video games). The NFL maintains guidelines that as much as 25 companions can personal a crew, however one particular person should management a minimal of 20%. The Irsay household is one among a handful that owns its crew outright.
“With gaming and international growth, no one regrets what they paid for a team,” he mentioned. “The NFL model is correct there with Disney
DIS,
There will likely be at some point be a commissioner and a CEO overseeing groups value $30 billion.”
Of course, the bodily toll the sport exacts on gamers, with concussions and different accidents in each recreation, has tarnished soccer and prompted many mother and father to maintain their children from enjoying.
Irsay will get it. “It is a dangerous, violent game. Athletes today are bigger, faster and more explosive,” he mentioned. “A lot of them have track backgrounds and are running into each other at 22 miles per hour.”
“I played college football at [Southern Methodist University] and have had 20 surgeries,” Irsay mentioned. “How we handle kickoffs, concussion protocol, helmet making — we’re looking at it. Athletes are willing to make $10 million, $20 million knowing what they will endure. It is a high-risk, high-reward profession.”
Meanwhile, Irsay’s different passions — his all-star band and his memorabilia assortment — are his rapid focus, particularly with the Colts out of playoff rivalry.
The Jim Irsay Band options Mike Mills of REM fame on bass and Kenny Aronoff, who performed with John Mellencamp, on drums, together with appearances by former Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty, Heart’s Ann Wilson and blues legend Buddy Guy. Previous stops on this tour have included Irsay’s hometown of Chicago, in addition to in Nashville, Austin, New York, Los Angeles and Indianapolis. The band has additionally performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
“It is just a good time. I asked Ann Wilson to sing ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ and she did it,” he mentioned. “That was another magical moment, after John Mellencamp joined us in Indy.”
In the run-up to Saturday’s present, Irsay’s assortment is on show in San Francisco. It contains pianos from John Lennon and Elton John, Ringo Starr’s drum set and unique bass drum head from when the Beatles performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 and Jim Morrison’s Paris pocket book. On the historical past aspect, there are artifacts and signed paperwork from presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy; an unique reward poster for John Wilkes Booth issued the morning after President Lincoln’s 1865 assassination; and writer Jack Kerouac’s unique 119-foot scroll of the novel “On the Road.” The sports activities assortment contains Muhammad Ali’s boxing sneakers from the 1975 “Thrilla in Manila” bout in opposition to Joe Frazier and Sylvester Stallone’s unique handwritten define and screenplay for “Rocky.”
“Pretty cool stuff. But fame is like a lottery ticket,” mused Irsay, 63, whose life would be the topic of a documentary that’s been two years within the making. “Once you cash it in, it isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.”
“Everything changed for me when I read Dylan Thomas, Hemingway, Hunter S. Thompson,” he mentioned. “Look, I’m just a guy from Chicago who has been blessed with the ability to do some things with my mind.”
“I have been so blessed with rock ‘n’ roll and NFL football,” he added. “For the 1970s and ’80s, that was America, and both remain remarkable.”