A Washington Post investigation published on 28 August found that Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay relapsed into drug use during the last two years of his life, despite public assertions of sobriety. The newspaper reported that Irsay was under the care of California addiction specialist Dr. Harry Haroutunian, who prescribed him opioid pills and later ketamine, a powerful anaesthetic with known abuse risks. The Post cited five people with direct knowledge of Irsay’s condition and uncovered evidence of three overdoses in the final five years of his life: one in February 2020 while vacationing in Turks and Caicos, another at his Indianapolis home in December 2023, and a third 12 days later at a South Florida resort that left him hospitalised for more than three months. Team executives and Irsay reportedly concealed the incidents, attributing prolonged absences to respiratory illness and back surgery. Haroutunian, who told the Post he “dedicated 18 months” to caring for Irsay, later signed the owner’s California death certificate when Irsay died on 21 May 2025 at age 65. The certificate listed cardiac arrest as the cause of death; authorities performed no autopsy or toxicology tests, and police closed their inquiry within days after finding no overt signs of drug use at the Beverly Hills Hotel where he died. In a joint statement, Irsay’s daughters—Carlie Irsay-Gordon, Casey Foyt and Kalen Jackson, who now control the Colts—acknowledged their father’s lifelong struggles with addiction but said “the media is not the place” to litigate disputed medical details, requesting privacy while they continue to “honor our Dad’s legacy.” The Colts have not directly contested the Post’s findings.