Pat McAfee details using magic mushrooms to get over death threats and failed kicks
Pat McAfee is regarded as one of the best punters in NFL history, holding the league record for net average punting yards, at 41.1. In his eight seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, he made the playoffs five times, reaching the AFC Championship Game once.
He was also known for his eccentric and boisterous personality, getting arrested once for public intoxication and almost inadvertently "exposing" a mostly-naked Andrew Luck for the world to see. He also once dabbled in psychedelics like mushrooms, as he recounted in a story on his eponymous show:
"There was one particular journey I took where it ended with us in my college kitchen. Basically me and my roommates, we just kinda laid out about what my life was gonna be, and that was after I had missed those two kicks where I was getting a bunch of death threats.
"We were trying to get me back into a position where I was, like, a happy a human again. Then at the end of that thing, 'Alright, here is the plan. We are gonna do this. This is gonna happen, then this is gonna happen. And then potentially this is gonna happen.' And (we) basically just laid it all out.
"And it felt like, the next day... it, like, flipped a switch, almost, for me - for the mext six months, when I was wondering what the f*** I was gonna do."
Pat McAfee and Aaron Rodgers' friendship, explained
Pat McAfee is not the only high-profile NFL athlete to have dabbled in psychedelic use. Aaron Rodgers has famously attributed his MVP-winning resurgence in 2020 and 2021 to consuming ayahuasca and mushrooms while in South America, and he recently spoke about inspiring his peers to use them at a convention last month.
Both of them are also very good friends with each other. In an episode of the "ManningCast" early last year, he detailed to Peyton and Eli Manning how their friendship began at a golf tournament in 2019:
“We had a late drop-out and (former teammate) A.J. Hawk, said, ‘You should get Pat McAfee.'
“So I reached out to Pat, and Pat was actually on a standup comedy tour. He came off the tour, joined our team and I went to him when he got there — I had never met him, I introduced myself and said, ‘Hey, when I introduce you at the welcome dinner, do you mind doing a couple minutes of standup?’ He goes, ‘Naw, I’m not doing that.'”
While McAfee had initially not wanted to show Rodger his comedy skills, he suddenly changed his mind:
"Pat walks up on stage, takes the mic out of my hands, and does 10 minutes of standup, and I knew from that point forward we would be good friends. And I always appreciate that about him.”
McAfee also asked Rodgers to visit his podcast during the tournament, and the rest is history.
: ESPN2Legendary story of how @PatMcAfeeShow and @AaronRodgers12 became friends.
📺: ESPN2 https://t.co/PlIqjGnQUx