Former Colts punter Pat McAfee says former General Manager Ryan Grigson fining him for an Instagram post was the last straw that led him to retire from the NFL.
McAfee says that late in the 2016 season, Grigson hauled him into his office with a printout of an Instagram picture McAfee had posted of himself in the Colts’ facilities. McAfee sees nothing wrong with the picture, but Grigson was furious about it.
“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 on his podcast, via the Indianapolis Star. “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. . . . 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.’ 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.”
McAfee said he told Grigson that the Colts’ losses were Grigson’s fault for failing to build an offensive line that could protect Andrew Luck.
“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,’” McAfee said.
With that, McAfee decided he no longer wanted to play for the Colts. Grigson was fired after that season as well.