Here's why former Colts punter Pat McAfee is leaving Barstool Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Pat McAfee's craziest quotes We've all heard stories about "that crazy kicker." Here are some of the craziest, real-life quotes straight from the mouth of former Colts punter Pat McAfee.

Pat McAfee announced Friday on Twitter that he has left Barstool Sports.

McAfee retired from the Indianapolis Colts after the 2016 season, after making the Pro Bowl for the second time as a punter. He was 29 when he left the NFL. One of the team's most popular players because of his outgoing personality and sense of humor, McAfee wanted to get into comedy. He joined Barstool Sports, a sports and pop culture blog, and was a fixture on podcasts and videos.

My time at @barstoolsports will be one I reflect upon fondly. Sometimes adult stuff gets in the way. I’m officially a free agent. pic.twitter.com/ON5KwnFzjc — Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 31, 2018

Friday the new gig came to an abrupt end.

"Financial decisions were being made for me by people I had never met, deals were getting made and pulled without my knowledge," McAfee said in his tweet. "The tranparency of everything became obsolete, and also very expensive."

He said he wasn't leaving because of the CEO of Barstool Sports Erika Nardini or founder Dave Portnoy.

More: Pat McAfee opens up on life after football

More: $100, a lie and a poker club: How Pat McAfee became an NFL punter

More: Pat McAfee walks away from the Colts at 29

"I began being disrespected by the business people in the building," McAfee said. "I've decided I don't want to make money for these folks anymore. I'm very proud of the work I did with Barstool."

Nardini tweeted: "Pat is an exceptional person and talent. Being part of his transition from an NFLer to a mega-star was a real privilege. I wish this were different and there are things we have to do better here. That's on me. I hope our paths cross again."

McAfee noted that he is now a free agent and will continue to make a podcast and video content with his friends.

Pat is an exceptional person and talent. Being part of his transition from a NFLer to a mega-star was a real privilege. I wish this were different and there are things we have to do better here. That’s on me. I hope our paths cross again. https://t.co/UoxJ8kGgnA — Erika K Nardini (@EKANardini) August 31, 2018

It's the latest twist in a remarkably varied life.

McAfee said he nearly retired before the 2016 season but was talked into staying by then-coach Chuck Pagano and responded with his best season as a pro. He averaged 49.3 gross yards per punt, a franchise record that led the NFL, and was named to his second Pro Bowl in three seasons. McAfee did not participate in the all-star game, instead electing to have surgery on his right knee. He has said he played in pain for most of the second half of the 2016 season.

McAfee was due nearly $6 million over the final two seasons of the five-year, $14.5 million contract he signed with the Colts in 2014.

McAfee’s rise from youth soccer stud to the best punter in professional football reads almost like fiction. It started with a lie to his parents, $100 and a restaurant basement in his native Pittsburgh. Then a high school senior, McAfee told his parents he was sleeping over at a friend’s house, sneaked into a high-stakes poker game and turned that $100 into $1,400 (thank you, pocket jacks). He used that money to buy a plane ticket to Miami, where he wowed college coaches during a showcase for the country’s top prep kickers.

That was enough to get him a scholarship offer from West Virginia.

After four years playing for the Mountaineers, McAfee was swiped with the 222nd pick in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft by then-Colts president Bill Polian. Expecting to kick field goals at the next level, McAfee was stunned when Polian told him he’d become the Colt’s next punter. He ventured to an empty field the next day with his dad and a bag of footballs.



“We had to figure out how to (expletive) punt,” McAfee said later.

A key moment in his career came when McAfee was arrested in October 2010 after an infamous swim in the Broad Ripple canal. McAfee has called it the night that saved his career.

“It completely changed the course of my life, it really did,” he said in 2016. “I was partying pretty hard right then. I was 21, 22, first time having a little money. I had money and it was awesome ... I was living, living, living. I just carried that into my second (NFL) season. I was going out and having a good time, living pretty hard, pretty reckless.”

The police report from that night remains an all-timer. After stumbling upon a shirtless McAfee in a parking lot, the cops asked him why he was wet. “It was raining,” he replied. They asked him where his shirt was. “In the water,” he replied. They asked him how much he had to drink. “A lot 'cause I’m drunk,” he replied.

It got worse. A lot worse. From jail, he 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.

“At that moment, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear,” he said in 2016.

After his arrest and one-game suspension, McAfee immersed himself in his profession. By 2014 he’d earned his first Pro Bowl nod.

He became the finest punter in Colts history, owner of club records in kickoffs (645), kickoff touchbacks (350), punting gross average (46.4) and punting net average (39.8).

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Andrew Hussey on Twitter at @thehussnetwork or email him at ahussey@gannett.com