Pat McAfee is the face of modern sports journalism. A former NFL athlete who has gone through the grind and understood the mentality required to compete at the highest level. But he also comes across as humble, funny, and absolutely foolish at times with his conduct. He entertains endlessly and applies common sense to an industry that had long set itself in templates and formulas. Thus, it is clear that McAfee has a way of achieving things without necessarily looking the part, or even having the part. In a recent interview with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes on the ‘All the Smoke‘ podcast, the former Colts man opened up about his life before the NFL and the path he took to get where he is today.
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In one such legendary story, Pat McAfee revealed that he was actually offered a scholarship to play as a field goal kicker for Kent State before actually becoming a part of the Mountaineers. One fine day, the phone rang, and a Florida coach was on the other end, asking McAfee to come down to Miami for a kicking contest. The young kicker was so pumped to receive the call that he remembers the Florida coach’s phone number to this day. The only problem was that it would take $1500 to go there.
His parents, Tim and Sally McAfee, worked as a truck driver and a secretary, respectively. $1500 in 4 days was next to impossible to arrange. His father put up another compelling reason for not going. McAfee narrated the story to All the Smoke hosts, quipping, “Dad actually told me to go f*** myself.” His puzzled dad further remarked, “So let me get this straight, I need to come up with 1500 bucks for you to go to Miami to kick, to potentially get a scholarship, when you already have a scholarship with Kent State… That’s not gonna happen!”
So McAfee took matters into his own hands. The year was 2005 and the World Poker Series was all the rage. In that very year, McAfee had played enough poker to call himself a good player. While he hasn’t yet played with the big fish, McAfee was well-versed in the game.
He recalled in the interview, “There was a big game happening that I heard about from my friend’s dads in the basement of an Italian restaurant in a town that we grew up in.” The bets were higher, the antes, the pots, everything was bigger in this Thursday Night Basement Poker Game.
How Did Pat McAfee Get Into West Virginia?
McAfee decided to go to the Poker Game. Almost 20 years later, he admits it was a “Dumb thought, blindly optimistic.. pretty narcissistic.” But at that time, McAfee did end up taking a $100 loan from a friend with resources. He adds, “I went in there and I turned it into 1400 bucks, I left around 3:00-4:00 AM and I met my dad when he was getting up. He was waking and he was like, Where the f*** have you been?” At this point, the future Indianapolis kicker took out the $1400 and gave it to his dad.
McAfee then asked his father for the remaining $100 and got to Miami in time. From there, he got the scholarship, made it to West Virginia, and had a pretty eventful NFL career.
It can be said with certainty that Pat McAfee’s work since his retirement has changed the whole landscape and how sports media is produced and consumed. From a $100 bet on himself to negotiating multi-million dollar deals with media giants (recently ESPN), McAfee’s journey has truly been inspiring.
