Jim Irsay Owner of the Indianapolis Colts, Jim Irsay, holds a press conference at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center, Indianapolis, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. Ini Irsay

The Indianapolis Colts shocked the NFL world on Monday when they announced that former All-Pro center Jeff Saturday would be taking over as the team’s interim head coach after the Colts fired former head coach Frank Reich. The move faced plenty of backlash and scrutiny as Saturday has very little coaching experience, especially compared to several of his more-qualified Black colleagues – some even within the organization.

On Monday, however, Colts owner Jim Irsay defended the move in a shocking way, saying that he’s “glad” that Jeff Saturday does not have a lot of experience in the NFL or as a head coach.

“I’m glad he doesn’t have any NFL experience. I’m glad he hasn’t learned the fear that’s in this league because it’s tough for all our coaches,” Irsay said, according to The Score. “They’re afraid, they go to analytics, and it gets difficult. … He doesn’t have that fear.”

Irsay downplayed the necessity of experience for the head coaching position, calling it “a very simple job” and implying that someone does not need to be an expert to be an NFL head coach.”We don’t build rockets to go to Mars,” Irsay said. “We’re not nuclear scientists; that is none of our jobs here. It’s a very simple job that we do here.”

We’ll see how Saturday does during his first game as the Colts’ head coach, especially after trash-talking his first opponent a few weeks ago.

[The Score]