Carlie Irsay-Gordon is one of three daughters of late Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. She, Kalen Jackson and Casey Foyt have assumed team ownership, each concentrating on a different area of the franchise, and all represent the team at NFL owners’ meetings.
What does Carlie Irsay do on the sidelines?
Irsay-Gordon is Colts owner and CEO, leading the football operation, so much so that she’s on the sideline on game days, using an earpiece to follow coaches’ communication and taking notes.
That caught a lot of fans by surprise as the 2025 season began, though she has doing it for more than a decade.
New Colts safety Cam Bynum said she also sits in on player meetings.
During her introduction as a principal team owner in June 2025, Irsay-Gordon said she started tracking coach communications in 2012, when Chuck Pagano was coach.
“That sort of accelerated my, ‘I need to learn more about this. I need to be able to say, ‘Is this person full of BS? Do they know what they’re talking about?’” Irsay-Gordon said at the time.
Irsay-Gordon said she has learned how complicated building a team is through listening in on game days.
“One of the things that being on the headset has really helped me learn is, to the question earlier, it’s such a complex organism, a football team, and how it operates on game day,” Irsay-Gordon said. “I think that’s been very valuable, because it also helps us be able to know: Where do we need to make tweaks? What resources do we need? What do we need to fix? So much of it comes down to how we operate and how things work.”
Kalen Jackson
Jackson is listed as Colts owner and chief brand officer. She leads the philanthropic efforts, most notably the Kicking the Stigma program to promote mental health awareness. She is also president of the Indianapolis Colts Foundation and chairs the NFL’s employee benefits committee.
Casey Foyt
She is Colts owner and exectuive vice president, concentrating on marketing and community relations. She is married to A.J. Foyt IV, a former IndyCar driver and grandson of racing legend A.J. Foyt.
Joel A. Erickson covers the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why does Carlie Irsay-Gordon wear a headset? Indianapolis Colts owner is on the sideline during games
Reporting by Scott Horner, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
