Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

INDIANAPOLIS — For two weeks the big top has been going up at 7001 West 56th Street. The Indianapolis Colts' season ended Jan. 1 and we still don't know if they're bringing back coach Chuck Pagano. We still don't know if they're bringing back general manager Ryan Grigson.

But who doesn't love the circus? This is becoming fun. The Colts are a clown car, and by golly, here's another clown getting out. And another. And another.

And another.

While we wait — there's another clown — we're learning something: The problems at West 56th Street run deeper than the coach, deeper than the GM. The problems start at the top, with the ringmaster of this circus. I'd say Colts owner Jim Irsay is running this billion-dollar business by the seat of his pants, but that's not really fair.

Dockers are sensible.

The Colts are a clown show.

The latest news, if we’re going to call it that, is that Irsay tried to hire Jon Gruden. That information comes from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, and it comes attached to “league sources,” but don’t believe for a second that Schefter is peddling misinformation. Gruden works for ESPN, same as Schefter. Gruden spoke to Schefter, if only to tell him — for the record, anyway — “I know nothing” about the Colts opening.

And if that were true then Schefter never would have reported what he reported. I don’t care if you like how the sausage tastes. I’m just telling you how it’s made.

Now, let’s take a peek inside the Colts, into what we call a “professional football team.”

Let’s go back to the end of last season, when Irsay reported to work the morning after the Colts concluded an 8-8 season and literally didn’t know whether to fire Pagano and Grigson. He had four years of information at his disposal, but he woke up that Monday morning undecided, so here’s how he made the decision:

He let Pagano make it for him.

Irsay let Pagano talk him into a reprieve not just for himself, but for Grigson. He let Pagano talk him into contract extensions through 2019 for both. I assume Pagano didn’t want five or six years. Whatever he wanted, he was getting it. He's lucky Pagano didn't demand the old Beatles drum set Irsay bought for $1.75 million, the one used to record "Can't Buy Me Love."

This past season unfolds, an 8-8 season in which it is crystal clear that Pagano isn’t terribly good at his job — baffling coaching decisions, a team rarely ready to play, a team capable of losing horribly — and it’s also looking like Grigson isn’t all that good at his. The defense has no playmakers. The offense has no line. Andrew Luck has no safety.

Along the way, Irsay informs us all that he’s going to consider firing Pagano or Grigson or both. He gives an interview where he admits he will consider making those changes after the season. In a sport that despises distractions, Irsay provides one … while the Colts’ postseason chances remain viable.

On the Monday after the season ends, when a high-ranking someone from the team has to meet the media per NFL policy, Irsay sends out Pagano, who has no idea if he’s coming back. The news conference is awkward and unfair, because while we can debate Pagano’s worthiness as a coach, there is no debate about his worthiness as a man. He didn’t deserve that humiliation.

Nor does he deserve the two weeks that have followed, two weeks marked by silence from Irsay, silence from Grigson and then the deafening report Saturday that Irsay tried to replace Pagano with someone who hasn’t coached a game in eight seasons. And so the 2017 season will unfold with shrieks of hysteria — distractions, I mean — every time the Colts lose a game. Because now we know just how tepid Irsay’s support of Pagano is.

Irsay tried to replace Pagano, and let's be clear about this: Trying to improve his team is not just his right, but it's his responsibility. Kudos to him for trying. But bless his heart, you know? His billions couldn’t buy him Gruden, just as he hasn’t been able to land anyone else he may have flirted with in the past two weeks, and it makes sense. If you’re a coach of any respectability and leverage, do you want to work for this owner? Do you want to work for an organization whose official food is the funnel cake and whose official song is calliope music?

No, you do not. Because ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages, the circus is at West 56th Street. And some people would rather not be the NFL’s punch line.

Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter:@GreggDoyelStar or atfacebook.com/gregg.doyel

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