Irsay was held overnight in Hamilton County jail and was released after posting bond Monday afternoon. Hamilton County officials says the arrest occurred at 11:41 p.m. Sunday in Carmel, Ind., when Irsay, driving at a slow rate of speed, stopped and failed to signal a turn, Lt. Joe Bickel of the Carmel Police Department said in a release (via the Indianapolis Star).
“During the course of the investigation, Irsay subsequently failed several roadside field sobriety tests,” Bickel said.
In a search of his vehicle, “multiple prescription drugs were discovered in pill bottles. These Schedule IV prescription drugs were not associated with any prescription bottles found in the vehicle,” police added.
Irsay’s problems, Bob Kravitz of the Indy Star writes, have been known within the organization for the last few years. He is, a source told Kravitz, “a sick, sick man” in need of help. From Kravitz:
The Colts have been cleaning up Irsay’s messes for years now. Time and again, Irsay dismissed the concerns of his close friends and confidantes, even if his increasingly gaunt physical appearance sent up red flags throughout the community.
I asked him two months ago about his weight loss, which has brought him from 235 pounds to 165 pounds, and he insisted that the doctors wanted him to lose weight to keep the strain off his troublesome back and hip.
I suspected otherwise.
Those of us who are around Irsay on a semi-regular basis suspected otherwise for a very long time.
So why didn’t you write it?
That’s a fair question. But it’s much like the baseball players during the steroid era. Suspicions cannot be the basis for news stories. My feeling all along has been, “Unless he gets arrested for drugs, or acts erratically in a public setting while obviously under the influence, it will remain nothing more than an educated guess.”
Now he’s been arrested.
The game has changed.