Colts owner Jim Irsay being treated for severe respiratory illness

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay is being treated for a severe respiratory illness, team officials have announced. The 64-year-old Irsay has owned the team since his father, Robert, died in January 1997. Jim Irsay started working for the team as a young ballboy in the early 1970s — after his father acquired the team. Following the Colts’ move from Baltimore to Indy in 1984, he became the league’s youngest general manager at age 25. Irsay began running the day-to-day operations in 1995 when his father suffered a stroke. The illness will prevent him from performing Thursday with the Jim Irsay Band in Los Angeles.