Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was found unresponsive with blue skin after a drug overdose in early December, TMZ reported on Wednesday.
The team said Irsay is being treated for a severe respiratory illness.
Irsay was hospitalized three days after Indy (9-8) was eliminated from playoff contention with a 23-19 loss to the Houston Texans.
“He is receiving excellent care and looks forward to returning to the stage as soon as possible,” the team said in a statement in early December. “We’ll have no additional information at this time, and we ask that you respect the privacy of Jim and his family as he recovers.”
The 64-year-old Irsay began running the team’s day-to-day operations in 1995 after his father, Robert, suffered a stroke. When his father died in 1997, he won a legal battle with his stepmother to keep the franchise.
Irsay has been a fixture around team headquarters since his father bought the Los Angeles Rams and swapped franchises with the late Carroll Rosenbloom to acquire the Colts, starting his career as a ballboy when Hall of Fame quarterback John Unitas was still playing in Baltimore.
Following the Colts’ move from Baltimore to Indy in 1984, Irsay became the league’s youngest general manager at age 25.
The Colts have won one Super Bowl and two AFC titles during Irsay’s tenure.
Irsay had admitted to struggling with opioid addiction during a November interview and said that he’d been to rehab 15 times.
The Associated Press contributed to this article