Jerry's Tiger Guitar in the Sports Page

Jerry's famous 'Tiger" guitar is owned by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts football team. He also owns the manuscript of "On the Road." This weekend, The New York Times did a little story about him, which mentions his "classic rock" influences.

"I consider myself a really serious businessman, but I think big business can have big heart. My influence from people like John Lennon and others growing up, my feeling is that you can be a lot of different things. People like John Lennon, Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan had a huge influence, their beliefs, the way Lennon was a guy who took it to far lengths in terms of the peace movement."

The Tiger was part of a legal dispute after Jerry died. Jerry bequeathed his guitar collection to guitar maker Doug Irwin in his will, but members of the Dead considered them to be part of the band's property. As part of a January 2002 settlement, Irwin received Wolf and Tiger.
Irwin, left destitute by a 1998 traffic accident, decided to sell the guitars to re-establish a guitar workshop, Ettinger said.

Irsay bought the guitar through an auction.

Last year, Irsay had a cash flow problem due to the NFL's salary caps. "I had to sell off some personal assets," said Irsay. "I was looking closely at Jerry Garcia's 'Tiger' guitar, but I couldn't part with it."