Jim Irsay says Tennessee Titans have his Indianapolis Colts “on a leash”

After years of torment, the shoe is on the other foot as the Indianapolis Colts are now suffering at the hands of the Tennessee Titans year in and year out.

You will find no homer in all of sports media than former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee, and you have to respect his honesty about it. Unlike some other hosts, he is upfront with his biases and it is part of what makes his show so engaging and entertaining.

That show is always why Tennessee Titans fans know just how much their success is bothering Colts fans. That is actually underselling it because it seems like Colts owner Jim Irsay has gotten to the point where he is gathering the coaching staff and front office members to rant about getting their butt kicked.

McAfee talked about it here, going over the entire speech and the words used (slightly NSFW).

One of the quotes he discusses is after the Titans beat the Colts (the first time last season, not the second time) when Jim Irsay gathered the coaches and scouts and said,

"“Do you like being on a leash? Do you like being subjugated, dominated? Do you like to keep getting your a** kicked?”"

I think I speak for all Titans fans when I say, “awesome.”

But this isn’t just a rant, this is a preview of the complete overhaul that is about to happen if the Colts don’t win this season.

Tennessee Titans exposing cracks in Colts organization

In the clip above, McAfee later goes on to talk about why Jim Irsay is such a good owner and how he spent time as a GM earlier in his career. He even suggests that the only reason that Jonathan Taylor is on the Colts roster is that Irsay pushed current GM Chris Ballard into drafting the running back.

Keep in mind, if you take away Jonathan Taylor from Chris Ballard’s resume, his “misses” start to badly outweigh his “hits”, not even considering the complete debacle that was the Carson Wentz trade.

While most of the national media holds Ballard up as the pinnacle of scouting excellence (despite not being the best GM in his own division), the results don’t match the hype and Irsay is surely running out of patience.

Here is one final thought to keep in mind, because I guarantee you Jim Irsay knows this. Chris Ballard was hired in 2017, Frank Reich was hired in 2018. Since Chris Ballard was hired, this is a list of how many times each team has won the AFC South:

Tennessee Titans: 2 (2021, 2020)

Houston Texans: 2 (2019, 2018)

Jacksonville Jaguars: 1 (2017)

Indianapolis Colts: 0 (literally fewer times than the Jacksonville Jaguars)