Only a half-dozen people on earth have walked in Indianapolis Colts owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon’s shoes.
Irsay-Gordon is one of the NFL’s six third-generation primary team owners. The Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, and San Francisco 49ers are also led by third-generation controlling owners.
It’s way too soon after just one season to tell if Irsay-Gordon’s stewardship will be a successful one. (This fan’s opinion: She shows good intentions, but will regret the decision to generally run it back in 2026 with the leading characters from the group that went 8-9 in 2025).
It’s not too soon, however, to establish the bar the Colts need to clear during Irsay-Gordon’s tenure for her to be considered the best of the NFL’s third-generation owners.
Greatest expectations for Indianapolis Colts ownership
Three owners currently can make a claim to be the NFL’s most successful third-generation owner.
If your key criterion is consistent regular-season excellence, then the choice is the Steelers’ Art Rooney II. Pittsburgh is 90-57-2 for a .611 winning percentage since Rooney II became controlling owner in 2017 – but notoriously has not won a playoff game during that span.
If you want to see regular postseason runs, then you are a fan of what the 49ers have done under Jed York. San Francisco has been to three Super Bowls plus four NFC title games since York became the leading figure in the franchise’s ownership structure in 2009. (York technically did not become the team’s principal owner until 2024). However, San Francisco has not won a Super Bowl during that span.
If your mindset is championships or bust, then the NFL’s top third-generation owner is John Mara from the New York Giants. Mara has hoisted a pair of Lombardi Trophies since he became the Giants’ principal owner in 2005. However, New York is also well below .500 during the regular season in Mara’s tenure.
Arizona’s Michael Bidwill can say the Cardinals’ winning percentage since he became controlling owner in 2019 is the second-best of the three Bidwill generations … but that’s a winning percentage of .376 with just 38 wins in 101 games.
It’s too soon to make a judgment on Chicago’s George McCaskey, who, like Irsay-Gordon, just finished his first season as his franchise’s controlling owner. McCaskey’s tenure is off to a promising start after an 11-6 season that included a playoff win.
As things stand, if the Colts can become a consistent regular-season winner and bring home a Super Bowl with Irsay-Gordon at the franchise’s helm, she’d be in position to make a claim as the NFL’s most successful third-generation owner.
Talking about the generations
The late Jim Irsay – Irsay-Gordon’s father and the Colts’ controlling owner from 1997-2025 - was unquestionably among the top half of the second-generation owners from the NFL’s three-generation ownership families. Indianapolis was 162-129-1 (a .557 winning percentage) during Jim Irsay’s one-of-a-kind ownership, including the Super Bowl championship after the 2006 season.
The two other top-tier second-generation owners from this group of franchises were Dan Rooney and Wellington Mara. Pittsburgh won two titles and had a winning percentage better than .600 under Dan Rooney from 1988 to 2017.
Wellington Mara technically was made a Giants co-owner at age 14 in 1930, so it’s hard to attribute an exact number of wins, losses, and championships to his time as owner. He was definitely New York’s principal owner for a pair of Super Bowl wins and played a role in New York’s four pre-Super Bowl NFL titles.
First of their kind
The late Robert Irsay’s legacy gets bonus points in central Indiana (and demerits in most other NFL circles) as the man who moved the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis in 1984. The Hoosier state’s football fans are indebted to Irsay for bringing the NFL to Indiana, but also surely wish Irsay’s teams had performed better.
The Colts were 153-226-1 in Baltimore and Indianapolis between 1972, when Irsay bought the Los Angeles Rams and then swapped them for the Colts, and his death in 1997. That’s a winning percentage of just .404. Only the Cardinals lost more frequently under the first-generation owners among the three-generation franchises, yet still managed to win an NFL title in 1947.
Even with more success, it would have been tough for Robert Irsay to crack the top four among the first-generation owners from the three-generation ownership families. Pittsburgh’s Art Rooney, who oversaw four Steeler Super Bowl wins in the 1970s, is arguably fourth on that list!
The top four, in some order, are Rooney, Chicago’s George Halas, New York’s Tim Mara, and San Francisco’s Eddie DeBartolo Jr. Halas oversaw 453 wins – 324 as the Bears’ head coach – and eight titles from the NFL’s founding through 1983. The Giants won at a .624 clip and claimed four championships during Tim Mara’s years with the team (1925 to 1959). The 49ers amassed five Super Bowl titles in a 14-year span to highlight DeBartolo’s ownership reign (1977 to 2000).
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