Lindsay H. Jones

USA TODAY Sports

Jim Irsay could become the first NFL team owner to face discipline from league commissioner Roger Goodell as the result of an alcohol- or drug-related arrest, but there is precedent that Goodell holds league employees to higher moral code than he does players.

At least three front office executives from two teams have been suspended for at least 30 days in the past 3.5 years because of arrests for drunken driving.

Irsay faces four felony counts after he was arrested Monday morning in Carmel, Ind., on DUI charges. Indiana police say they discovered multiple prescription pills in bottles inside Irsay's vehicle after he was stopped and failed roadside sobriety tests.

Irsay, who inherited the Colts following the death of his father, Robert, in 1987, is subject to the NFL's personal conduct policy, league spokesman Greg Aiello told USA TODAY Sports.

In previous DUI incidents, team executives have served suspensions ranging from 21 days to 60 days.

Lions president Tom Lewand was suspended by Goodell for 30 days and fined $100,000 after a 2010 arrest for DUI, but the suspension was reduced to 21 days after Lewand, who plead guilty two weeks after his arrest, voluntarily submitted to alcohol treatment.

Goodell wrote Lewand a letter in 2010 in which he explained the punishment in relation to the league's conduct policy, telling Lewand that in his role as Lions president, he was in a, "special position of responsibility and trust."

"Your conduct must be consistent with someone in that position," Goodell wrote. "As we have discussed, those who occupy leadership positions are held to a higher standard of conduct that exceeds what is ordinarily expected of players or members of the general public."

The Broncos last summer levied their own punishment on executives Matt Russell and Tom Heckert before Goodell or the league intervened. Because Irsay is the sole owner of the Colts, there will be no option for the team to issue its own punishment.

"Any owner discipline would be handled by the commissioner," Aiello told USA TODAY Sports. "In other cases, the team could have the option to impose discipline, subject to approval by the commissioner. That is done on a case-by-case basis."

Russell, the Broncos director of player personnel and John Elway's top assistant, was suspended indefinitely following his July 6 arrest in which police said he caused at least two accidents, including hitting a parked police vehicle. Russell returned to work after 60 days.

Heckert, the former Cleveland Browns general manager, was arrested nearly a month before Russell, but his 30-day suspension began on July 14, the same day as Russell's punishment. He returned to work by mid-August.

Russell and Heckert both spent the 2013 working behind the scenes in the Broncos' personnel department, and they helped lead the Broncos' free agency push this spring. Elway this weekend praised both for their work in helping identify, recruit and sign a free agent class that included defensive end DeMarcus Ware, cornerback Aqib Talib and safety T.J. Ward, who Heckert drafted in Cleveland.

An NFL owner has not been suspended by the league since former commissioner Paul Tagliabue suspended former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. for the 1999 season, and fining him $1 million following DeBartolo Jr.'s guilty plea for his involvement in a Louisiana extortion case.

DeBartolo Jr. never returned to active ownership in the NFL. His nephew, Jed York, now runs the Niners.

Goodell also intervened in an issue involving former Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams, who was twice caught giving an obscene gesture during and after a game in 2009. Goodell fined Adams, who died in October, $250,000 for conduct detrimental to the NFL.