NFL Network Analyst Slams Colts For ‘Hiring Drinking Buddy’ With Zero Coaching Experience: ‘One of the Most Disrespectful Things I Have Ever Seen’

NFL Network’s Joe Thomas ridiculed Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay after he hired ESPN’s Jeff Saturday, who had no coaching experience, as their interim head coach.

Irsay fired head coach Frank Reich on Monday after the Colts lost to the New England Patriots 26-3. The loss moved the Colts’ record to (3-5-1) on the season, and they are second in the AFC South standings.

Saturday, who never coached at a level of football higher than high school, left his role at ESPN and took the job after Irsay offered it to him. Saturday played for the Colts for 13 seasons. He won Super Bowl XLI as a member of the Colts when Peyton Manning was the quarterback.

Friday morning on Good Morning Football, Thomas, who played for 11 seasons in the NFL, felt Irsay and Saturday showed disrespect to other coaches in the NFL.

“When you hire your drinking buddy to be head coach of an NFL football team, it is one of the most disrespectful things I have ever seen in my entire life,” Thomas said. “To the commitment, the lifestyle, and the experience that it takes to be an NFL coach, any coach, much less the head coach of the Indianapolis football Colts!”

Thomas elaborated that Irsay and Saturday should have realized how ridiculous of a decision it was to hire someone with no experience.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Thomas added. “That this is something that Jim Irsay and Jeff Saturday, who’s not blameless for accepting the job, could’ve talked and decided that this was the best thing for the Indianapolis Colts at this juncture of the season.”

Thomas explained how one of his head coaches when he played for the Cleveland Browns, Rob Chudzinski, only saw his kids twice a week if the Browns played at home.

“That’s a lifestyle; that’s who you are,” Thomas continued. “That’s not something you can just show up for; it’s not something you sign up for. This is something that changes your life when you decide to be a coach.”

Thomas told his co-hosts that he never became a coach so he could see his family more, something that lifelong NFL coaches could not do.

“When you’re a coach in the NFL, you do not have a life outside of football,” Thomas said. “Why do you think coaches never retire? What are they gonna do? They haven’t developed any other parts of their life; they don’t have hobbies. They don’t have a lot of other friends outside of their football world because you live football.”

Thomas listed a few examples of NFL coaches who had the opportunity to coach alongside their sons, like Bill Belichick, Mike Shanahan, and Pete Caroll. He also believed other current NFL coaches might have felt like they were slapped in the face by the Colts’ decision.

“The disrespect that NFL head coaches have to feel when they saw this hire was made is higher than anything I can ever possibly remember in the NFL,” Thomas added. “And then to defend the decision by saying, ‘I’m happy that he doesn’t have any experience because he’s not scared.’ If you didn’t already insult every person that’s worked their entire life to be a head coach in the NFL.”

When he first saw the reports of Saturday’s hire, Thomas thought it was a joke, and he had seen jokes in the NFL when the Browns team he was on only won one game in two seasons before he retired.

“It was the most egregious thing I can ever remember happening in the NFL,” Thomas said. “And I went 1-31 my last two years in the NFL.”

Watch above via NFL Network.