Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has threatened to sue ESPN’s Frist Take and analyst Stephen A. Smith over the show’s comments on his 2014 DUI arrest.
During an interview with Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, the 64-year-old Irsay told interviewer Andrea Kremer that he was discriminated against nine years ago when he was pulled over in Carmel, Indiana on suspicion of DUI.
I am prejudiced against because I’m a rich, white billionaire,’ Irsay told Kremer. ‘If I’m just the average guy down the block, they’re not pulling me in, of course not.’
First Take and Smith covered the NFL franchise owner’s comments Wednesday – with the ESPN personality branding Irsay an ‘entitled old brat’ – which led the 64-year-old to threaten to sue the program for the panel’s reaction.
Taking on X, Irsay launched a furious rant, posting: ‘1st take, your gonna get your ass Sued, because there was NO Alcohol, No illegal Drugs/ $29,000 dollars is low for me to be carrying in ,2014 arrest/I give away $2000-$10,000 dollars to the homeless and needed on the street, All the time and pass it on, making the world
‘My Grandparents came across Ellis Island, with just the shirt on their back..penniless and escaping Jewish Concentration Camps… I grew up in a horrible home where both my brother and sister died in a Car Crash in 1971.
I worked for my living/bought 30% of the Colts Bank Loan,’ he added with it unclear how it related to the situation.
He concluded by referring to ESPN reporter Kimberley A. Martin, adding: ‘And on 1st Take,the Woman that preceded Stephen A… how dare you pretend to know me; I don’t know your name and I don’t care to.
If my Black Mother Dorthy was still alive..you’d be in some big Hot Water! You are mean and ugly Your a Nothing Burger.’
First Take host Molly Qerim said on the show, ‘If you’re gonna revisit that after 2014, [it’s] an opportunity to address a serious situation where many people have lost their lives. But instead you took it in that direction.’