Colts' Jim Irsay compares football risks to bobsledding, Aspirin

Jim Irsay is the latest NFL owner to downplay the connection between brain injuries and playing football.

The Indianapolis Colts boss discussed the matter with Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Daily at the annual NFL owners meetings, and made some strange comparisons to illustrate his point.

"I believe this: that the game has always been a risk, you know, and the way certain people are," Irsay said. "Look at it. You take an aspirin, I take an aspirin, it might give you extreme side effects of illness and your body … may reject it, where I would be fine. So there is so much we don't know."

Irsay also suggested that football is no more dangerous than bobsledding.

"Look at it: When you get into Olympic bobsledding - I could sit down and name a dozen different sports - it has always been a known factor that you know you are going in there and you are taking a risk," he said.

Irsay's statements echo those of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who said it's "absurd" to link CTE to playing football.

"One thing I have always felt strongly about, that (is) to say, 'Oh, someone knew something and they didn't tell way back in the '60s or '70s,’ that's just not true," Irsay said. "I was there. I know that's a lie. You know no one knew anything. The only thing we know and always knew is when you strap on that helmet and go out on the field, boy you know you are taking a risk, but the reward is something. It's worth it."