Colts Punter Pat McAfee Credits 100 Tequila Shots With Saving His NFL Career

El Taco9 years ago

Rarely does someone credit buying 100 tequila shots to saving their careers. More often, 100 tequila shots (or even 20) are considered a lethal dosage. In the case of Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee, though, buying an entire bar shots, a swim in a canal, an arrest, and public embarrassment saved his NFL career.

From the Indy Star:

From jail, [McAfee] called his dad. His dad hung up on him. When he exited jail the following morning, news cameras swarmed him. His attorney carried a bag of his clothes, still damp from the previous night’s swim. “I can’t believe I’m that guy,” McAfee told himself. His phone was broken, so he had to apologize to his mom via Facebook message. He got a ride to the Colts’ facility, was told by then-President Bill Polian that he was being fined and suspended, then hitched a ride home with one of the team’s equipment managers.

Yeah, McAfee was more messed up than a half-naked sorority girl after 20 Patron shots and half a bag of Franzia. It’s ugly. A broken phone makes it even worse. Publicly embarrassing yourself is the cake fart on top of the shit sandwich, too. McAfee says he really bottomed-out that night — and it was for the best.

Because without that night – without the embarrassment, the punishment, the discipline and the soul-searching it forced him into – McAfee knows how that story ends.

And it’s not well.

“If it wasn’t for that evening, I certainly wouldn’t be in the NFL right now,” he says without hesitation. “I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with how I was living and still perform at a good level.”

You can tell McAfee did some serious soul-searching after that night. It was likely the same kind of soul-searching you do every Sunday when you tell yourself you’re never going to drink again but then you realize how ridiculous that is because there are sober children in Africa and so you break your promise with a mid-Wednesday blackout sesh.

McAfee stuck to it, though. It’s not like he was a big name quarterback at the time and teams were going to two, three, four chances after this screw up. The man’s a punter who, according to newly-discovered information, are people, too. Another screw up and the Colts could’ve easily tossed him to the curb. Probably doesn’t hurt having known party animal Jim Irsay as your owner, either.

McAfee has since stopped partying as much during the season, cashed in with a multi-million dollar contract, and made a Pro Bowl (and likely headed to another one this season). Thank you, Mexico, for helping this man get his life together..

[via Indy Star]

Image via Instagram/ @patmcafeeshow