Doyel: Irsay banishes Grigson, kingdom rejoices
INDIANAPOLIS – The bad man was fired, and there was much rejoicing.
It’s a fairy tale, what happened Saturday at the Indianapolis Colts’ complex on West 56th Street. The ogre under the bridge, general manager Ryan Grigson, was summoned to owner Jim Irsay’s office and then thrown out. The villagers in the locker room came out from hiding, took to Twitter and celebrated. Irsay described himself, the head coach and even Grigson’s former right-hand man in the Colts’ front office as feeling “excitement.”
Only one thing left to do: Everyone will live happily ever after.
“I'm very excited about the direction we’re going,” Irsay said.
The direction they’re going will be determined on the field by fifth-year coach Chuck Pagano, whose teams have often been unready at kickoff or unable to finish off a beaten opponent late in the fourth quarter or simply out-coached in the interim. However, because everyone will live happily ever after, Jim Irsay has decided the following:
“I really believe (Pagano) will be the best coach he ever has been going into this year,” Irsay said.
I love a good fairy tale. They’re simplistic and moralistic – they’re written for children – and they tend to end happily. The cleat fits. The froggish coach becomes a sideline prince. The Colts keep chopping that beanstalk until it falls over.
And to be clear, this could work for the Colts. I mean, maybe. Whoever's running the Colts' 2017 draft can't do much worse than Grigson has done since 2013. Whoever's picking free agents couldn't possibly do worse than he has. The coach is the same, but let's tap into the delirium of Colts nation – inside and outside the building at West 56th Street – and imagine Andrew Luck's surgically repaired shoulder plus a new talent guru reversing this franchise's two-year slide from 2014 AFC title game to third in the AFC South.
The loudest people, though, seem happy Grigson's gone simply because he's gone.
Current and former Colts popped champagne corks all over Twitter and even on cable television, where legendary Colts receiver Reggie Wayne – who was not re-signed by Grigson after the 2014 season – went on NFL Network to celebrate Grigson’s firing by noting, among other things, “It was a long time coming.”
All-Pro punter Pat McAfee (“Thank God,” he tweeted), beloved former linebacker Gary Brackett (“great move by the Colts”) and 2012-13 leading tackler Jerrell Freeman (“that took longer than expected”) gloated about Grigson’s comeuppance.
Even former Colts safety Winston Guy – he was a safety, right? – went on social media to celebrate this firing.
“Damn,” Guy wrote, “(I don’t know) why Irsay Hired him in the 1st place. He wouldn't even know how to operate a lineup for a bball team.”
Irsay tried to tamp down the celebration, describing Grigson as “an outstanding man” and “a father of six, all under the age of 13,” but Irsay also looked into the cameras and told Colts fans the following:
“This is the move we needed to make,” he said. “This move is the right move. There’s excitement in people’s eyes in the building today, in talking to Chuck Pagano and (vice president of football operations) Jimmy Raye and others.”
There’s excitement outside the building, too. News of Grigson’s firing broke Saturday afternoon, about 90 minutes before tip-off in Bloomington of the Indiana-Michigan State game, and as I was hurrying out of Assembly Hall for the news conference at West 56th Street, an IU fan waiting outside the men’s room for her husband told him the good news:
“Grigson,” she said, then jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Gone.”
“Seriously?” asked her husband. She nodded, and they gave each other a high five.
Fire Grigson, fire Pagano, fire them both – Colts have waited three weeks for Irsay to do something. Until Saturday it seemed as if he were going to repeat his mistake of last January, when he looked at his faltering franchise and decided the best move was no move. Continuity, Irsay decided after the 2015 season, was what the Colts need. Same coach. Same GM. More hugs.
“Tied at the hip,” Irsay called Pagano and Grigson after the 2015 season.
What happened to “tied at the hip,” IndyStar Colts insider Zak Keefer asked Irsay on Saturday.
“I untied ‘em,” Irsay said, uttering the biggest truth of a news conference that had some moments that sounded straight out of Aesop’s.
For example: Irsay said he talked to former head coach Jon Gruden, but not about replacing Pagano. He said he talked to retired Colts legend Peyton Manning, but not about replacing Grigson. He said he talked to former GM Bill Polian, but not about returning to work for the franchise.
Just a bunch of football guys, Irsay explained, talking football.
“We always love talking football together,” Irsay said of himself and Polian. “You have guys like me that love football. And there are a lot of guys out there that just love football. A lot of times, that’s all we do is sit around and talk football. Some of the guys that were mentioned in this room today that love football – I mean, Gruden loves football. Peyton loves football. I know a lot of guys who love football.”
That’s all it was, see. A dream team of Manning and Gruden? Nah! Irsay was just talking 'ball with the boys. He’s freelancing now anyway, running this organization by the seat of his pants.
“Intuitive instinct,” Irsay said of his decision to fire Grigson. “Intuitively you get the feeling when the timing’s right where a change will help.”
If that doesn’t assure concerned Colts fans that things are heading in the right direction, nothing will. Irsay’s intuition has ridden in on a brilliant white stallion to save the day.
“We are extremely fired up going forward,” he said in one breath, and then literally in the next breath said this, “whereas I don’t think we ever celebrate a firing.”
Speak for yourself.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel
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