Jim Irsay Was Reportedly Found in His Bed Unresponsive and Turning Blue From an Overdose
Life is simpler and a lot more fun when someone's problems with controlled substances can be played for laughs. When your high school and college buddies are puking from too much cheap beer or Out to Lunch Punch. When you're watching one of the dozen or so stoner comedies Seth Rogen and James Franco have made. Laughing at drunks and druggies was a staple of sitcoms from Otis the Mayberry Town Drunk on The Andy Griffith Show to Reverend Jim on Taxi, before the Fun Police arrived on the scene and declared substance abuse isn't funny any more.
Such has been the case with celebrities for ages. Matthew Perry's yo-yoing weight was played for laughs for years. Until the joke ended abruptly last year. And few people famous people in American life have had a more public display of his own issues with pharmaceuticals than Jim Irsay. Considering that he's an eccentric billionaire who was born into an NFL family - the one where the patriarch snuck his team out of its home city literally under the cover of darkness in the middle of the night - hasn't made Irsay the most sympathetic figure in the world. So when he'd dance like a goon in the locker room, say outlandish things in an interview, or hand out $100 bills to strangers for no reason, it was hilarious. A "Look at that drug-addled buffoon!" moment for us all.
But not so much any more. It stops being funny when the reality of addiction becomes all too real:
Source - Jim Irsay was found laying in his bed unresponsive, cold to the touch and gasping for air during a suspected overdose in December ... this according to police in Indiana.
Carmel Police Department documents, obtained by TMZ Sports, show cops were dispatched to Irsay's Carmel residence on Dec. 8 at around 4:30 AM ... after someone said they had found the Indianapolis Colts owner unconscious on a bathroom floor with a blue skin tone.
When police first arrived on the scene, they say Irsay had been moved to his bed ... where he was struggling to breathe and had a weak pulse and constricted pupils. ...
[A]fter administering one dosage of Narcan -- a drug commonly used to revive people in opiate overdose situations -- "he responded slightly."
Cops say they were prepared to attach an AED to Irsay -- but paramedics arrived and "took over lifesaving efforts." Irsay was eventually transported to a nearby hospital via an ambulance. ... They classified the incident in the docs as both "overdose" and "overdose/poisoning."
It's stating the obvious, but deserves to be said anyway, that this is a person in crisis. To repeat, a guy who was born on a 3rd base made of a mountain of inherited wealth and therefore isn't the poster child for sympathy. It's not hard to default to the fact he can afford the best medical care and finest rehab facilities known to man. But he's still an addict. One who clearly hasn't been able to kick his habit. And it almost killed him.
Which is made all the more chilling when you factor in that 10 years ago his mistress Kimberly Wundrum was found dead of an overdose in a place purchased for her by a trust owned by the Colts. A week and a half later, he was found under the influence while driving with pills and a bag containing $29,000 in cash, and suspended by the NFL. He promised to get clean after that, and obviously hasn't. And when having someone you're close to OD isn't the moment of clarity that gets you clean and sober for good, I don't know what anyone can do for you.
All I do know is that clowning Jim Irsay isn't never going to be as fun as it used to be. Reality sucks.