Following the Indianapolis Colts loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, which eliminated them from the playoffs, Pat McAfee lambasted the team on X, calling them out for living down to expectations.
“I’ve said what I believed to be the truth about the team.. & a bunch of ‘Colts fans’ on the internet were trying to get me booed out of the city,” he wrote. “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. And in the end… everything went.. just like I fucking said it would[.] In the biggest moments everybody with a brain knew they’d crack.. and they did.”
The former Colts punter also cited Anthony Richardson’s decision to remove himself from a game during the season and various reports about the team’s lack of work ethic and accountability.
Monday, Colts defensive tackle Deforest Buckner was asked about the comments and offered up a reply that seemed to imply there’s a lot of truth to what McAfee was saying.
“I didn’t see, I’m going to be honest, I’ve been staying off of social media, but I haven’t seen his tweet. I’ve heard about it,” he told reporters. “Look, I know Pat’s a former Colt. He has tremendous passion for this organization, this city. He has every right to be mad. There’s times where we’ve had some times where we haven’t had people being accountable and stuff like that, and we’ve called people out on it and things like that. That happens in almost every team. I wouldn’t say it was a constant issue because we would nip it in the bud.
“It’s one of those things, where like I said, this offseason, there’s going to be some changes. Sometimes those changes are going to be uncomfortable for people. There’s going to be uncomfortable conversations, and we’re going to have to make those changes for the better.”
Buckner has been with the Colts since 2020, which also happened to be the last year the team went to the playoffs. So he knows what it takes to get there, and clearly, even he doesn’t think the current makeup of this squad will get them there in 2025. At least right now.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.