Jim Irsay won’t pay Jonathan Taylor, but has money to relocate orca

Indianapolis Colts billionaire owner Jim Irsay may be too cheap to pay his star running back, but he is bankrolling one meaningful cause. 

The Indianapolis Colts‘ training camp has been shrouded in questions surrounding the future of star RB Jonathan Taylor, who enters the final year of his rookie contract with no traction on an extension. Owner Jim Irsay has basically said Taylor is lucky to be here and the Colts won’t pay him, which probably didn’t go over well with the 2021 SN Offensive Player of the Year.

While Irsay haggles over dollar amounts and a trade request in Indianapolis, he is also bankrolling a meaningful cause in Miami. It doesn’t excuse him from paying his players what they deserve, but it’s nice to see good things happen in the world. This is a good thing.

Irsay has backed the $20 million effort to relocate Lolita the orca, a majestic creature who has been sequestered in the Miami Seaquarium for 53 years.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay bankrolls relocation of captive orca

This probably isn’t the forum for a long spiel on animal rights and the inherent ethical problem of capturing a four-year-old orca from her pod and making her perform in a tiny aquarium for five decades, but it’s exceedingly wonderful to see Lolita finally get the chance to return to her home on the Pacific coast.

Lolita is expected to rejoin her original pod in a “15-acre netted area in the Puget Sound” off of Washington state, per the New York Post. The aging dolphin (not whale!) can no longer hunt her own food after 53 years of rigorous performance. The hope is that she can be reunited with her mother, who she was taken from all those years ago. She could also be joined by Lii, a pacific white-sided dolphin who shared an enclosure space with Lolita in Miami.

According to Toki, the activist group leading the charge on Lolita’s relocation, the orca could be reunited with her family off the Washington coast within 18-24 months. Over $500,000 have already been spent on life support systems for her move.

Wonderful news all around. Some things in life are bigger than football and this is one of them. Here’s to hoping Lolita can live up the rest of her days happily and healthily in her native waters surrounded by family and friends.