Colts owner Irsay continues road to recovery
By The Associated Press
First responders found Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay unresponsive and struggling to breathe in early December when they responded to an emergency call from inside the home, Tmz.com reported Wednesday.
The online outlet cited police records from Carmel, Indiana, a northern suburb of Indianapolis, that detailed the Dec. 8 incident. Tmz.com said the police report revealed Irsay had a “blue skin tone” when they arrived and he was treated with Narcan, a medicine that can reverse an opioid overdose. Eventually, he was transported to a hospital.
Irsay has a history of addiction to pain killers and has publicly addressed the problems he has faced, most recently in November when he told HBO Sports he had sought treatment at least 15 times.
Earlier this month, Irsay cancelled a performance in Los Angeles with the Jim Irsay Band because of what team officials described as a severe respiratory illness. When asked for an update on Irsay’s condition last week, general manager Chris Ballard said he was stable and he was getting through it.
On Wednesday, the Colts issued another statement.
“Mr. Irsay continues to recover from his respiratory illness,” it read. “We will have no further comment on his personal health and we continue to ask that Jim and his family’s privacy be respected.”
WEATHER A CONCERN IN BUFFALO >>
On Wednesday, neither frigid blowing winds, the prospect of another 2 feet of snow being dumped on the region nor an Erie County-imposed travel ban could prevent the Buffalo Bills (12-6) from showing up for practice in preparation to host the Kansas City Chiefs (12-6) in a divisional round playoff game on Sunday night.
The storm is not expected to impact the game, with Sunday’s forecast
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AFC: calling for no precipitation, with partly cloudy skies and a low of 11 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-12 Celsius). And snow removal crews were already busy at the stadium clearing parking lots and concourses.
More important for the Bills was not losing a day of meetings and practice during an already shortened week following a Monday game, and with the Chiefs rested after their 26-7 win against Miami on Saturday night.
“The sport thrives on routine,” center Mitch Morse said. “Just to be able to have an opportunity to work it in person, that’s great. It’s just so hard to do sometimes over Zoom.”
With the sun shining and major roads clear around the Bills facility in Orchard Park, coach Sean Mcdermott said all players were in attendance for meetings and a brief walkthrough practice, which he pushed back an hour to take into account the morning snowfall.
“We prioritized the players’ safety and everyone’s safety as best we could here, and just a phenomenal job by everyone that’s out there working so hard to clear the roads,” Mcdermott said.
County executive Mark Poloncarz did not respond to messages from The AP seeking comment on whether the Bills were given permission to violate a travel ban that included Orchard Park and its surrounding towns. The storm, which spent much of the day centered on Buffalo, led to the NHL shifting the Sabres’ home game against the Chicago Blackhawks from last night to today.
Despite a second major lake-effect storm hitting the Buffalo region in less than a week, Bills quarterback Josh Allen had no trouble getting to practice on Wednesday morning because much of the snow was falling north of his home.
Informed the snow might keep falling through Friday, Allen shrugged and said:
“Yeah, Buffalo weather. We’ll figure it out.”
MAYO TAKES OVER IN NEW ENGLAND >>
Jerod Mayo will be a first-time head coach, and the youngest in the NFL.
He’ll also be following one of the winningest coaches in NFL history in Bill Belichick, who built the New England Patriots into one of the league’s preeminent franchises.
And the former Patriots player and Belichick assistant is embracing all of it, promising first and foremost that the Patriots’ new era would be led by someone who is very much his own man.
“I’m not trying to be Bill,” Mayo said during his introductory news conference Wednesday. “I think that Bill is his own man. If you can’t tell by now, I’m a little bit different even up here. But what I will say is the more I think about lessons I’ve taken from Bill, hard work works. Hard work works, and that’s what we’re all about.”
Mayo’s also not shying away from what it means to him to be the Patriots’ first Black head coach in a league that had just three at the start of the 2023 season: Mike Tomlin (Pittsburgh), Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay) and Demeco Ryans (Houston).
“You’d better believe being the first Black coach here in New England means a lot to me,” Mayo said, adding later, “I do see color because I believe if you don’t see color, you can’t see racism.”