The NFL owner who has repeatedly demonstrated that, when it comes to his Twitter account, he has no impulse control is asking his customers to not be so quick to turn their backs on his rebuilding team.
“The schedule is out and new era is here . . . in 1998 we went 3-13 and it took us until Jan. 2004, almost 6 years, to win 1st playoff game,” Irsay said Wednesday on Twitter.
His one-word request? “Patience.”
Sorry, Jim. It doesn’t work that way. There’s no six-year plan. There’s not even a two-year plan. It’s win now, or the fans may scatter.
More accurately, the challenge is to remain in contention as deep into each season as possible. Even though Irsay is correct when he points out that the Colts didn’t win a playoff game until the seventh season of Peyton Manning’s career (a not-so-subtle slap at the team’s former quarterback), they made it to the playoffs under Peyton in 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
And so while the fans may not bail on the new regime if the Colts don’t win another postseason game until 2018, they’ll need to get to the playoffs by 2013 or the negative comparisons to the Manning era will begin.
Or, even worse, Colts fans will choose to stay home and watch Manning and the Broncos on TV.