When Peyton Manning once became roulette God to help Pat McAfee win big - "Jesus himself walked into the casino!"
Peyton Manning and Pat McAfee played only two seasons together, during which the Indianapolis Colts reached the Super Bowl once - when the punter was a rookie. An injury sidelined the quarterback two years later, then he left for the Denver Broncos.
But during their brief time together, they shared a hilarious moment off the field, as McAfee told then-Indianapolis Star writer Zak Keefer in 2017:
"I got asked to go on a golf trip with Peyton before he ever really knew me. ... I was like, I gotta learn how to (expletive) golf. I borrow Adam Vinatieri’s clubs. I lost, roughly, 160 of Peyton Manning’s golf balls that trip."
After the golf trip, Manning and McAfee went to the casino:
"We get back to the hotel after a day of golf (at the Pete Dye Course in French Lick) and you have to walk through a casino to get to the escalators. Apparently, word had gotten out that Peyton Manning was there. I stop at the roulette table. I say, 'I’d like $500 in chips.'"
Before leaving, Manning advised McAfee to put the chips on the red no. 18 (the quarterback's jersey number), Soon, everyone was doing the same. Then this happened:
"All of a sudden, the number stops on red 18. The other people at the table are like, 'OH MY GOD! Jesus himself walked into the casino!'"
The next day, McAfee convened with Manning about the roulette bet:
"He goes, 'Yeah.'”
McAfee would later recall that story on the "Dan Le Batard Show" in 2019:
What other memorable experience did Pat McAfee have with his quarterback?
While Manning left for Denver, McAfee stayed in Indianapolis, just in time for the arrival of the Colts' next generational quarterback, Andrew Luck. Together, they reached the AFC Championship Game in 2014-15, but that was not the defining moment of their time together.
In January 2014 (during the 2013 season), at the end of a 45-44 comeback win against the Kansas City Chiefs in the Wild Card Round, McAfee famously posted this since-deleted photo showing a naked Luck in the background:
Little did he know at the time, that photo would become his way to fame outside/after the NFL. When it came out, he was fined by the organization, and he tried to make amends with Luck:
“I called him like 400 times, but his phone was off. It was finally turned on and he answered. I said, ‘Man, I’m so sorry that happened.’ … Really thankful all his parts were covered.”