Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said his March 2014 arrest for driving under the influence was a result of prejudice against him for being white and wealthy.
The longtime NFL owner spoke about the circumstances of his arrest in an interview with the HBO show Real Sports that aired on Tuesday. Irsay later pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of operating a vehicle while impaired after initially facing four additional counts of possession of a controlled substance.
“I am prejudiced against because I’m a rich, white billionaire,” Irsay told HBO’s Andrea Kremer. “If I’m just the average guy down the block, they’re not pulling me in, of course not.”
Asked how he thinks it sounds for a white billionaire to claim that he’s a victim of prejudice, Irsay stood by his remarks.
“I don’t care what it sounds like,” Irsay said. “It’s the truth … I could give a damn what people think how anything sounds or sounds like. The truth is the truth, and I know the truth.”
Police in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel pulled Irsay over after observing a man in a Toyota Highlander driving slowly, stopping in the roadway and failing to use a turn signal. Authorities discovered various prescription drugs in Irsay’s vehicle along with more than $29,000 in cash.
A toxicology report showed Irsay had the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone as well as alprazolam, which is used to treat anxiety, in his system at the time of his arrest. Officers on the scene said he had trouble reciting the alphabet and failed other field sobriety tests.
The NFL suspended Irsay for the first six of his team’s games the following season and fined him $500,000.
Irsay claimed that when he was asked to take a field sobriety test and looked unsteady walking, it was because he had just had hip surgery. Asked why he pleaded guilty if he had been profiled, Irsay said he just wanted to get it over with.
The Carmel police department said in an emailed statement to the Indianapolis Star: “We are very sorry to hear that comment about our officers and our department. We have a very professional agency consisting of officers that strive to protect our community with integrity and professionalism.”
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The 64-year-old businessman also told Real Sports that he has gone to rehab for addiction 15 times and that he once nearly died of an overdose, adding that “addiction and alcoholism is a fatal disease.”
Irsay’s father, Robert Irsay, built his fortune through a series of successful heating and air-conditioning companies before purchasing the Baltimore Colts and controversially relocating the team to Indiana in 1984.
Jim Irsay has owned the Colts since 1997, when he emerged victorious from a legal battle with his stepmother over the ownership of the team following the death of his father.