Giants Win Sends McAfee on Emotional Colts Rant

Former Indianapolis punter Pat McAfee has regularly made his frustrations about the team known on his show. But after Indianapolis’ season came to a maddening early end, with a horrific defensive performance against one of the league’s worst teams, he didn’t hold back.

“Current players, who have won nothing during their entire tenures, started using me and my face to try and paint me as the enemy in the city I’ve committed my life to,” McAfee said. “In the biggest moments, everybody with a brain knew they’d crack. And they did.”

In one of the season’s most embarrassing losses, Indianapolis gave up 389 yards of offense and made quarterback Drew Lock look like prime Peyton Manning. Receiver Malik Nabers went for 171 yards, the Colts turned the ball over three times, and they didn’t record a sack.

Indianapolis quarterback Anthony Richardson was held out of the contest due to a back injury, but starting Joe Flacco is a sorry excuse for such a flat performance. It was simply a collapse from everyone involved.

McAfee wasn’t the least bit surprised.

“A blind person could see the red flags on this team,” McAfee said via a video going viral. “Work ethic questions never happen on good teams. Preparation commitment questions never happen on good teams. Late to meetings, never happens on good teams. Late to/skipping treatment, never happens on good teams. The franchise QB tapped out of a game, on third down, in the red zone, because he was tired – never happened in the history of the NFL.

“When I said Joe Flacco gives us a better chance to win than AR immediately after the tap out.. I would’ve said whatever backup QB we had on the roster. That can’t be what the face of your team is doing. Just can’t be. And to a bigger aspect of it all, somehow AR thought it was ok to do that. That’s a locker room issue, that’s a culture issue, that's an indicator of a loser attitude radiating through a building that was built by greats.”

It isn’t immediately clear whether the Colts will move on from head coach Shane Steichen or general manager Chris Ballard in the offseason. But it’s grown increasingly difficult to back an administration with little success.

New York’s upset victory might have derailed the tank. It also could be the nail in the coffin for an era of Colts football that’s done little but fall short of expectations.