Colts Owner Jim Irsay Spends Nearly 5 Times Jonathan Taylor’s Salary to Save Whale

A trade request by Colts star running back Jonathan Taylor has morphed into a public spat between player, agent and team owner Jim Irsay, causing one of the offseason’s most intriguing storylines to develop all in the public eye. And while Taylor’s situation with the team remains unresolved, the saga took a turn for the absurd—and humanitarian—on Thursday with reports of Irsay’s latest, shall we say, investment.

Irsay is reportedly committing a whopping $20 million to facilitate the transport of a four-ton whale from a Miami aquarium to its original home in the Pacific Ocean, according to Patrick Reilly of the New York Post. The plan is to return the whale, whose name is Lolita, to a netted area in the Puget Sound off the coast of Washington, where her pod still resides.

The fee to save the whale will cost Irsay nearly five times the amount of Taylor’s 2023 base salary of $4.3 million.

“We have been working on this thing, and we will get it done,” Irsay said last month during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. “And we’re trying to get it done sooner than later.”

As the Irsay-Taylor feud persists, at least the story has one silver lining: the running back’s loss is, apparently, Lolita’s gain.