Good Article on why Pat McAfee Quit
 

Pat McAfee isn't a stranger to this feeling.

The former Indianapolis Colts punter decided last week to end his partnership with Barstool, saying, "I began being disrespected by the business people in the building. I've decided I don't want to make money for those folks anymore."

On his podcast Monday morning, McAfee recalled feeling the exact same sentiment a few years ago, sitting in former Colts GM Ryan Grigson's office.

On the Monday after the Colts' game on Thanksgiving in 2016 — the Colts "got blown the (expletive) out on national TV. It was the biggest turkey bowl of the day," McAfee said — Grigson asked McAfee meet him in his office.

"Maybe this is an olive branch," McAfee remembered thinking. "If it wasn’t for me, we’re shut out on national TV. I’m leading the league in almost everything, I don’t think I’ve given up a return yard in maybe two months, three months, I’m the No. 2 jersey seller for the Colts, I’m doing a lot of charity work. Maybe this is Grigson being, ‘You know, I fined you three to four times before about dumb (expletive), but I would like to be friends.'"

And then, the moment that effectively ended McAfee's NFL career:

"He goes, ‘Sit down.’ And I’m like, ‘Woah.’ Immediately. ... There was already in my head an idea of me being sick of making money for Ryan Grigson and the Colts operation at the time. It was at that moment that I realized, ‘I’m (expletive) done here.’"

The issue at hand? A picture McAfee had posted on social media the week before.

"He has the picture on a piece of paper, slams it on the desk, pushes it across the desk to me and I look at it," McAfee said of Grigson. "At this moment in my head, I’ve already said ‘(expletive) it’ to this guy. I look at the photo and look up at him. It’s like a moment of silence."

The issue, according to Grigson, was that the picture was taken in a "football room."


"He pulls out my contract, opens it up, goes to a clause. ‘Since this isn’t your first offense, I can fine you a game check for this,’" McAfee recalled Grigson saying. "You only get 17 game checks in your entire salary, so if you want to look up what that was, it was $100,000 almost. I said, ‘For what?’ He said, ‘Is that a football room?’ I said, ‘Well the title is an equipment room. There’s footballs in there I guess.’ He goes, ‘Why do you have to be such a smartass? I can fine you anything I want. This is why we’re losing.’ This is why we lost to the Steelers, he tells me."

Then McAfee went all in.


"I said, ‘You paid a guy $140 million and you can’t keep him healthy," McAfee said. "Your offensive line is swiss cheese. He’s blown out his shoulder three times, and you’re worried about this (expletive)?’ He goes, ‘What did you just say to me?’ I go, ‘Oh yeah, I’m the best in the game at what I do. I wish you would do the same.” This is a moment he did not expect. He goes, ‘You’re going to walk into my office and disrespect me?’ I go, ‘You called me in here.’ He said, ‘I’m going to fine you a whole game check.’ I said, ‘Cool bro,’ and literally walked out of his office. As I walk out, he gives me the, ‘Get out of my office.’ I go, ‘Already walking out.’"

Then McAfee walked down to coach Chuck Pagano's office.

"I go, ‘Hey, if you had anything to do with that, you can go (expletive) yourself too, just like I told Grigson," McAfee said. "He goes, ‘What are you talking about?’ Chuck had no idea."

Pagano called McAfee later, but his decision had already been made.

"I told Chuck on that phone call, ‘I just don’t feel like you guys appreciate or are grateful for what I’m doing,’" McAfee said. "In the locker room, I feel like I was pretty valuable. Anything at work, I busted my (expletive) off because I wanted to talk. As a punter, you have to be good to talk. You can’t just suck and talk. That was the conversation. I told him, ‘I don’t think the NFL is for me anymore, and to be honest, I don’t think I want to make money for you guys anymore. And I am done after this season.’”

Nearly two years later, McAfee felt the same thing, in a completely new venture.

"This type of feeling, it's going to be the death of me. Because (Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy) wanted me to come back ... and I just couldn't sleep. Dave was very nice, but by that point I was already like, 'Man, I don't want to make money for the business people.' Just like when he said, 'Sit down' in the chair to me, I don't want to (expletive) make money for this guy anymore. It'll be the death of me, it honestly will be, but at least I sleep good at night."

https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...on/1192911002/

:cool:

Grigson was a god damn nightmare. What an idiot

Barstool Sports is a gross, obnoxious outlet. I'm not shedding any tears over this. He shoulda known who he was getting into business with.

Mcafee knows grigson can never fire back. This is more bs from mcafee. Very unprofessional. Not saying it isn’t true but to me he looks like ass here.

Kinda arrogant of a punter to think the GM would give a shit about being his friend or trying to smooth over past fines. McAfee thought he was a rung below Luck or something. Grigson didn't help things by escalating it, but jeezus how much of a mark for himself is Patty Mac? Then he's goes H.A.M. on Pagano thinking the whole thing was a giant double-team conspiracy?

Grigson is an ass, but why do Colts kickers think they are the shit? First, Vandershank and then the Antivirus. SMH

Mcafee was a really good punter. He retired and we replaced him like it was nothing.

The dude was always too big for his britches. Not sure why the fans liked him so much.

People liked his "Bro" attitude. Seemed like a "life of the party" kind of guy. I liked the fact that he was cool with putting a hit on a kick returner. I stopped missing the guy once Sanchez showed he was no slouch. I wish him good luck in his comedy or whatever his next endeavor will be.

You are correct on not missing a beat by switching punters... Even Pat said the same thing..... He's damn good that scout found a gem.

Fans like him because of his ability and his personality. If you had either you would understand.

Well that is fine but Grigson disrespected everyone and if it were me I would have fired back too. So he was even more unprofessional IMO

Fuck Grigson and I love that Pat is rubbing salt in his wounds. I wish he would have kicked him in the balls!

Just sounds to me like McAfee was telling Grigson what the rest of the team, and the rest of the football universe, already knew : He sucked as a GM

Come on, Grigson telling him "This is why we are losing. This is why we lost to the Steelers"

really a social media post by Pat McAfee is why we lost to the steelers? No, a shitty coach and a shitty team is why we lost to the steelers.

It is an area the Colts have always seemed to be good at scouting.

You are assuming mcafee is telling the truth of course. This dude has no job and is selling himself. Good chance there is some embellishing going on.

No doubt grigson probably was a dick to him though.

Yeah yeah yeah.

The big bad grigson. Either he was the worst person ever or he is getting sold out by people with an agenda. Pagano and mcafee.

To me, I find it pretty telling how people act in front of the media. Lots of shit have been said about grigson in public and he always takes the high road. You can take that 2 ways. Either he was the devil he was portrayed or he has some integrity and keeps it to himself like a man.

From everything we know of Grigson and mcafee, I can think of no reason to doubt this story. It seems completely consistent of what we know about Grigson and how he operated.

I like McAfee and he was great, but he quit on the team. I couldn't stand Grigson. I'll never know both sides of the story, but nothing would surprise me coming from West 56th last season.

Almost everything you know of grigson came from where?

Apparently Reggie Wayne and others didn't like the MF either.

https://www.stampedeblue.com/2017/1/...as-fired-colts

You could tell from the players (current or former) who responded when he got fired that a lot of people didn't like him. That matches up with what media and others have said, that he was an arrogant dick. Fuck him for putting himself over the team and then blaming shit on other people like McAfee.

I believe McAfee.

Why on earth are you defending that swine Grigson? Whether the story happened the way Patty said or not, the gist of it is all true. Grigson was a prick, he nearly ruined Andrew, and nobody liked him.

We KNOW all that.

I am not trying to defend grigson. That isn’t the point I am trying to make. On his own admission he said he fucked up in terms of relationships within the building.

I just don’t believe everything I read when people have something to sell. Like mcafee here or when the anonymous sources (pagano) we’re trying to keep pagano afloat.

I as well wanted mcafee to stop acting like such a clown. I doubt Lilian would have put up with it either.

a story from two years ago. I guess his stand-up career is in the toilet.

Oh, Grigson for sure fucked up and deserved to be fired, probably before he was (but then, so did Pagano, and Irsay chose to waste a year not rebuilding instead...)

But let's not pretend like McAfee isn't a total diva. I'm sure there's some truth here, but any GM is going to tell a punter telling the GM his business to get bent. You just might listen more intently if it's Bill Polian telling you that. Dude quit his team (his right, I don't hold it against him, but he quit) to join an outwardly dumb and gross company, and now it's someone else's fault that didn't work out as well.

All the Colts players that were on the team at the time

I agree that McAfee looks bad in this tale, but I think that if he did accuse Pagano, it speaks volume as to the lack of trust and confidence he had in both Grigson AND Pagano. I mean, McAfee retired even *after* Grigson was fired (but Pagano retained).
And was it just him? Or was the rest of team more or less feeling the same about the staff?

He’s always had this inexplicable soft spot for Grigson.

Nope

More of a hatred for pagano that

That apparently leaves you speechless.

That I can understand. Only Pagano’s incompetence can make a man so angry.

McAfee was just on DD show telling this tale.....re: his relationship with Pagano he says that he lumped Pags and Grigson together until he took the USO trip to Japan. On the 17 hour flight he told Pags he was inclined to leave the NFL because he felt he was being mistreated and not valued (multiple fines over nothing, etc....). He says that he and Pags brokered a deal that Pat would stay and that Pags would insulate him from Grigson. From that point Pat developed a better relationship with Pags (probably misguided since IMO that was not practical). When the fine/Pittsburgh game blame incident happened he felt that Pags had let him down and thus made his decision to leave as soon as the season was over.

There seems to be a group here that believes every single thing about Grigson was bad and everything about Ballard is above being questioned - for now anyway. I wasn’t here so I’m personally curious when it switched for Grigson and when it will for Ballard. But contrary to that type of all or nothing view, neither is above question, just as every decision one of them made also isn’t inherently wrong just because they (currently Grigson) made it. Everything seems to be all or nothing to many.

Pagano is a snake in the grass. Glad that fucker is gone.

Time will tell whether Ballard has made good personnel decisions, and whether his strategy is right or wrong -but when it comes to the basics of treating people with respect, of being trustworthy, open and honest, so far it sounds like Ballard is head and shoulders above Grigson.

A lot of great athletes have big egos. 1) you need one to put yourself out there in front of a stadium and TV audiance. 2) They know they can back it up.

Some just can't keep it to themselves. Some keep it in check. I"m betting Peyton Manning has about a big an ego as anyone. He has his under control. He can make fun of himself, he does a lot of things without fanfare. But he didn't get to where he is without self confidence.

Patty Mac is a pretty good athlete, squirrely, but that's not unusual for kickers. He backed up his play. The only dumb ass thing he did was divining into the canal. He got suspended too. I think the Colts were worried he could have been killed. He was too drunk to know how deep the water was.

Grigson had a pretty big ego and he couldn't back it up. That's why all the anger. He felt he had to have a finger in every decision. He had to control everything, and no one can ever do that. There was a book out there, about how people rise to their level of incompentcy. Grigson would be the poster child for that discussion.

He is who he always has been. You don't think someone is going to hire him?

That's not exactly true. Patty Mac had mulitple surgeries on his knees. He left while he could still walk. Grigson made it easier

On the way to treat people I won’t disgaree at all - all indications are Grigson was an ass.

Hire him for what?

He said today that he's already gotten multiple offers but he's refusing to leave Indy and so turned them down. Instead, he's taken a few of his friends from the Heartland Barstool team and he's starting up his own venture. He's said he's already secured multiple sponsors (though he didn't name those sponsors)........time will tell whether this venture is a success or not. He plugged the new name a couple of times but I've already forgotten what it is.....

Grigson was a cancer to the locker room from what I've heard from most players who speak about him. So his culture and actions also contributed to the losing, and I'm not even considering his personnel decisions when making that statement.

Mcafee was by all accounts a good teammate and I've never heard a player say a bad word about him.

Not hard to figure out who's side to come down on here.

Maybe Irsay should have fined Grigson.

Both kickers never understood the phrase "know your place". That was my point.