INDIANAPOLIS – It's been 27 weeks since he dropped his bombshell on Comedy Central and stunned the city, declaring from that stage outside that bar in Houston that he was done with professional football at the age of 29. Give him credit: Pat McAfee made history that night. He has to be the first NFL player ever to retire on live TV while wearing a T-shirt that read “SATURDAYS ARE FOR THE BOYS.”

Three weeks shy of what would be his ninth NFL season, the greatest punter in Indianapolis Colts history strolls to the door of his sparkling new Downtown office, dressed precisely as you’d expect a recent retiree to dress: jeans, a tank top, no shoes. He’s barefoot. At the office.

He looks at ease. He looks happy.

“This is the best I’ve felt since I was 13 or 14 years old,” McAfee says.

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He means physically. Five-hundred and seventy-five punts over eight seasons, plus thousands more on the practice field, wore his knees down and led to three surgeries in four years. Making it to Sunday became an exhausting chore. So he walked away, at the peak of his prime, no regrets. From Pro Bowl punter to chief operating officer of a sports website in one offseason. “My life’s been littered with terrible decisions,” he joked that night in February, “and this is at the top of the list.”

This being his bold leap from pro football — where he had two years and roughly $6 million left on his contract with the Colts — to Barstool Sports, where he commands the Midwest outfit, aptly named Barstool Heartland. His team set up shop just north of the city, inside a glistening 10,000-square-foot workspace McAfee designed himself. There’s a basketball court, a bar, six flat screens, two studios, a green screen. It’s what McAfee has long craved. It’s a creative paradise.

“I loved my time in the NFL, but right now, I get real eager to wake up the next morning and go to work,” he says.

(The first week the staff moved in, legions of McAfee devotees would gather on the sidewalk outside the office and stare into the building. McAfee eventually had the windows tinted.)

He dived in. He hired a staff of 12. He whittled 350 intern hopefuls down to 25. He launched one of iTunes’ most popular sports podcasts. He camped out in the infield of the Indianapolis 500 — for an entire week. He golfed with John Daly. He pounded beers with Daly. He emceed the Colts’ ChuckStrong gala. He began training to become a professional wrestler. He moved on from football.

“At first, when I’d bump into people on the street, they’d just yell, ‘Come back and punt!’” McAfee says. “Now, they seem genuinely happy for me. Now, they just want a picture.”

He watched the Colts’ first preseason game from the couch, feet up. It was the first time the Colts took the field without him (save his one-game suspension in 2010 for you-know-what) since January 2008. McAfee was good with it. No sudden urge to hit the gym or boot some balls. To hear him tell it, that part of his life is over. McAfee looks forward. He has new goals. He wants to write a movie (really). He wants to become a professional wrestler (really). He wants to build something at Barstool.

“It was nice to be completely relaxed, and watch a game and not worry about the miserable week afterwards if we lose, or whatever’s going to happen on a play,” he says. “I feel good. (The NFL) can be pretty miserable, if you’re not winning, and everybody’s hurt. It becomes quite a miserable workplace, because everybody’s out for their job. That really wore on me.”

He keeps in touch with former teammates. He chats with Adam Vinatieri, a close friend, a few times a week. He caught IndyStar’s sports page on Tuesday — a photograph of Colts coach Chuck Pagano under the headline, “No More Mister Nice Guy” — and he texted a photo of it to Pagano. “Let’s go!” came Pagano’s response.

(And no, McAfee doesn’t have a clue whether Andrew Luck will start Week 1.)

“They won’t tell me anything,” he says with a laugh.

For those hoping McAfee would have second thoughts as the months wore on and football season inched closer, know this: He doesn’t plan on returning to professional football. This wasn’t an abrupt decision born of the Colts’ disappointing 2016 campaign, or his disgust with former General Manager Ryan Grigson. This was years in the making. McAfee, remember, was ready to walk away after the 2015 season; it was Pagano, on an NFL-sponsored trip to Japan, who talked him into returning.

By November, McAfee had made the decision. Then Barstool called.

“I’m really happy,” he says. “Now, dealing with all the logistical (expletive) of running a business, I hate that. I’m excited for that to be over. But hanging out with my friends and creating stuff? That’s really fun.”

When staffers struggle to flesh out an idea, they hoop, or play pingpong or flip on a TV. “Activity implores creativity; motion creates emotion,” McAfee says. They work, too. McAfee says he regularly spends 12-hour days at the office. His employees text him at midnight. “Is this a good idea?” they’ll write. He likes the initiative. “That’s good (expletive),” he says. “They’re working. They care about this place. They’re trying to build something.”

“He makes you want to do your best,” says one of his employees, Jourdyn Berry. “He’s the reason we all came here.”

Barstool likes McAfee’s vision. When he refused to move to New York to set up shop, they countered with an offer to build him one in Indianapolis. McAfee explains that he doesn’t measure success so much in online traffic or podcast downloads as he does this simple question: “Is it quality (expletive)? I’m a big fan of quality.” Still, his reach is stunning. The video of him golfing with Daly drew more than a half-million views in a little more than 22 hours.

“I have a gigantic following in Indiana, and I love Indiana,” McAfee says. “My friends are here. My family’s here. There’s good people here. It wouldn’t be a smart decision to leave it. I’m trying my best to make Indianapolis a destination city.”

And if there’s one professional sport McAfee, 30, dreams of, it’s not a return to the NFL, but a spot in WWE. He’s serious. Five years ago, a wrestling ring arrived by delivery at his house. He was confused. “Apparently drunk me found out I can buy one,” he says with a laugh. He set it up this summer and began training, hiring renowned wrestling expert Rip Rogers, who’s trained the likes of Brock Lesnar and John Cena. McAfee has a ways to go. He is undeterred.

“I’ll be in the WWE at some point,” he vows. “I think I’m supposed be a wrestler."

He’s 30 years old. What will he be doing when he’s 40?

McAfee lets the question hang in the air for a moment.

“I have no idea,” he finally says. And there’s a part of him that likes that. To think: As a high school senior, he was supposed to kick at Kent State until a basement poker game changed everything. “I would’ve hated Kent State,” he says now. Now that his eight-year NFL career is behind him; next up is constructing a company that lasts — and having a hell of a lot of fun along the way.

Seems to be fitting him just fine. Right now, McAfee is focused on the rest of his afternoon. He has a rap to write about Ric Flair.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.