Through the Eyes of the Owner - Kalen Irsay -NYG
Follow Kalen Irsay as she photographed her trip to NYC and her game day experience against the Giants on Monday Night Football.
This week I traveled with your Colts on the team plane to New York for our Monday night game against the Giants! I typically travel with my family but about half of the away games I travel with the team.
As many of our loyal social media followers know, our photographer Matt Bowen does a great job taking some great shots as the players head to the plane before every away game.
It was a beautiful Sunday to head to New York to get a W!!
After checking in it was time to board the plane!
Found my seat and got settled. We have WONDERFUL Delta stewardesses every flight who, of course, are always decked out in Colts gear!
Seated up front with the coaching staff, ready for take off.
The sun was just setting when we landed and buses are waiting to take the team to their hotel.
Everyone grabs their bags and loads onto the buses.
My family was already in the city so I made my way into NYC!
It truly is the city that never sleeps.
We stay at a hotel right by Radio City Music Hall, home to the NFL draft for many historical drafts! The city was already starting to get ready for the holiday season.
Our go to restaurant for away games in NYC is Maloney & Porcelli because it is very close to our hotel and is always delicious!
Snapped a quick shot of dad, Jim Irsay, and my sister Casey Foyt at our family and friends dinner on Sunday night. All of us were getting pumped for our big Monday night game!
My dad helping my niece do some drawing at dinner.
The next day we walked around and explored the city killing time before kickoff and we had yet to see any sign of Colts fandom; therefore, we decided to create some of our own! Here, we changed the placemat from The National Restaurant and Bar into a Colts themed one instead.
We got word of a Colts bar called Keats in NYC where Colts Nation has been known to gather for over 10 years to cheer on their Colts! By far my favorite part of the whole experience was that they have a mini "Tiny" just like our blow-up "Tiny" that we put up outside the Colts complex on the Friday before a game day weekend!
I stopped by Keats 5 hours prior to kickoff so it was pretty quiet still BUT there were some Colts fans already there and ready for game day!
A Peyton Manning jersey hung on the wall marking Keats as a Colts bar.
Of course, I had to get my picture with "Tiny"!
"Tiny" got even better when a local New Yorker's dog Lola posed for a picture with him.
My game day credential. I headed to MetLife stadium around 4:15 to beat that NYC traffic.
Sun was setting as I pulled up to MetLife and the tailgating lots were just getting started!
Player's buses outside MetLife stadium.
My sister Carlie Irsay-Gordon and I headed into the tailgating lots to try and find members of Colts Nation!
Colts Nation was represented well out in the tailgating lots!
And they were all confident that we would get a WIN!
We headed back inside and headed through the players tunnel out onto the field.
The calm before the storm.
Colts bench prior to warm ups.
We love to see Indy's local media travel to our away games and cover the Colts! Here is Anthony Calhoun, WISH-TV Sports Director, giving a pre-game update to Colts Nation back in Indy!
Our GM Ryan Grigson doing a quick pre-game interview with Dave Furst with RTV 6.
Our photographer Matt Bowen snapped a shot of me working on my gallery.
My dad, Jim Irsay, and Grigson talking pre-game.
We ran into a well known Colts alumnus, Tony Siragusa, or "Goose"!! He was my favorite player growing up and even made a visit to my second grade classroom back in the day. I got a quick shot of him with our COO Pete Ward (left) and my sister Carlie Irsay-Gordon (right).
Spotted Matthew McConaughey with his son on the Giants sideline pre-game.
Andrew Luck and Reggie Wayne posing for a picture with Ray Lewis taken by Trent Dilfer before warm ups.
Our director of player engagement and beloved Colts alumnus David Thornton getting pumped for game day. I made him pose for the camera.
D'Qwell Jackson signing autographs for fans before warm ups.
Ricky Jean-Francois signing autographs
TY, or the Ghost, getting ready for another big game!
Adam Vinateri warming up and he ended up having another great game Monday night!
Fourth Down Army ready for game day.
Griff Whalen during warm ups.
Trent Richardson during warm ups.
Reggie Wayne, Donte Moncrief , and Coach Pagano during warm ups.
Our linebackers coach, Jeff Fitzgerald, with D'Qwell Jackson running a warm up drill.
Fitzgerald with Jerrell Freeman
Jonathan Newsome warming up, he was explosive Monday night!! Huge playmaker.
Fitzgerald giving a pump up speech!
Andrew Luck running drills in warm ups.
Some last minute push-ups for Darius Butler
Greg Toler and Pat McAfee.
My sister Carlie Irsay-Gordon and her daughter. She is starting to love football at a young age just like we did.
My niece had a "kids say the darndest things" moment. She wanted to take the refs flag from him and when she asked if she could have it he said, "I'm sorry I need it for when the players do something wrong." Which led her to ask "Like when they call you a poopyhead?" and he said "Yep!"
My dad and Ryan Grigson saying hello to Steve Tisch, chairman and executive vice president of the New York Giants.
Heading up to our seats to watch the game, Colts fans were ready!!
Colts banner in the suite.
My dad and I, ready for kickoff!
Our suite.
View from our suite.
It was an extremely moving national anthem performed by Chris Botti who is an alum of Indiana University!
My dad checking out stats at halftime.
Celebrating a Colts touchdown!
Always great to see the scoreboard when it reads 37-10 Colts and to have the game end 40-24 Colts was even better!
Colts bench around the 2 minute warning.
Ahmad Bradshaw and Trent Richardson as the game ended. So great to see Bradshaw have an incredible game back in NY! COLTS WIN!
