Most NFL owners don’t spend games on the sideline.
Indianapolis Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon isn’t like most owners. She often can be seen on the sideline — and sometimes, she has a headset on, too.
Irsay-Gordon took over the role as the principal owner and CEO of the Colts in May 2025 after the death of her father, Jim Irsay.
She co-owns the Colts with her sisters, Casey Fot and Kalen Jackson.
And no, Irsay-Gordon isn’t taking over the play-calling operation in Indy. She’s simply putting herself more into the action so that she knows what’s going on in the organization that she runs.
Why is Colts Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon on the Sideline With a Headset?
Irsay-Gordon decided she’d take an informed approach to ownership of the Colts. She’s not trying to influence in-game decisions, but she does want to know what’s happening in the franchise that she owns.
None of this is an accident. Irsay-Gordon thinks everything through and has a reason for everything, including this.
“I think one of the things that I learned in going through, even as back as when we hired Chuck Pagano (in 2012), is that sort of accelerated my, ‘I need to learn more about this,'” Irsay-Gordon told the Colts’ official website in June of 2025. “‘I need to be able to say, is this person full of BS? Do they even know what they’re talking about? And I think 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 of football team and how it operates.”
Irsay-Gordon sometimes has a play sheet down there, too. If she’s going to be able to hear the headset, she wants to be able to connect the dots. It’s the only way to get the full picture of the human beings that she’s trying to understand.
“You could say, ‘Oh, that person ran that route wrong,'” Irsay-Gordon said in that aforementioned story on the Colts’ website. “When you learn to find, ‘Oh, someone tagged the wrong wide receiver, and it wasn’t really the player’s fault – it was the person that called it.’ 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 just how we operate and how things work and the headsets – I would suggest it for anyone else that has to pay coaches and GMs millions and millions of dollars. It helps you make a less expensive mistake potentially.”
Colts QB, Coach Approve
Daniel Jones and Shane Steichen both like Irsay-Gordon’s leadership of the organization.
“It’s neat for sure,” Jones told Fox News during the 2025 season. “Just her attention to detail, her interest in how hard she works in understanding every facet of the organization. Obviously, the play on the field, the game plan, the scheme, kind of all that goes into that. She takes a lot of time and makes a lot of effort to get to know that, really, really understand it. I know she’s said stuff in the past and how important it is for her to understand all of it as she leads the organization. But, yeah, I think for all of us players it sets a great example seeing the owner on the sideline like that. I think that carries a lot of weight.”
Steichen doesn’t mind having her on the sideline.
“As far as football, she’s around and she understands it,” head coach Shane Steichen said in 2025. “When you talk football with her, she gets it. She understands it. She goes over the defensive stuff, the offensive stuff. She’s been involved since I’ve been here from Day One, very hands on and she’s been tremendous. I think she’s going to do a phenomenal job.”
The Colts had a promising start to Irsay-Gordon’s first year at the helm before injuries hurt them down the stretch. As the 2026 season gets underway, they’ll try to bounce back from that, and Irsay-Gordon will be right there helping lead while also learning along the way.
Why Colts Owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon Stands on Sideline With Headset During NFL Games