Two days after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said of Jim Irsay, "Any policies or any laws that are broken – whether you are commissioner, owner, player or coach – subjects you to discipline,'' the official police report on the the Colts owner's arrest has surfaced to give Goodell insight into his case.
While the charges against Irsay are still preliminary and not formal, the details of the report, obtained by the Indianapolis Star, are damning. In it, Irsay denied to the arresting officers that he had consumed alcohol, but admitted to taking several medications, slurred his speech, had trouble standing and refused to submit to a blood test. His driver's license was confiscated for the refusal, under Indiana law, the report said.
Irsay, whose worth is around $1.6 billion, had more than $29,000 in cash in the car with him.
When officers asked him for his license after pulling him over, the report said, Irsay opened a metal briefcase on the passenger seat, and the officer "observed prescription bottles in the brief case next to his wallet." A later inventory at the police station said that more than $14,000 was also in the brief case, and $12,000 was in a laundry bag in the car.
He also noticed that the owner "appeared to be disoriented,'' had "red and watery" eyes and "poor manual dexterity."
The arresting officers cut short the field sobriety test they were giving him, the report said, because he had so much trouble standing upright. At one point, Irsay tried to stand up from the hood of the police car on which he was sitting, and "about fell to the ground," according to another officer's report.
Irsay is now in an undisclosed treatment facility, and his daughter represented the team at the NFL meetings in Orlando this week. Asked about Irsay Tuesday, Goodell said that getting treatment was an important first step, and added, "We obviously will want to understand the facts before we take any steps as it relates to any discipline.''