Pat McAfee just can't escape what he refers to as "the worst play in NFL history."
The former Indianapolis Colts punter played eight seasons in the NFL, but one play where he never even touched the ball continues to haunt him. Wednesday marks the eight-year anniversary of the "Colts Catastrophe," when Indianapolis tried to outsmart the New England Patriots with a fake punt formation. Instead, McAfee and company tied themselves to the "Butt Fumble" and other infamously bad football plays.
McAfee received an unwanted, and likely unneeded, reminder of the significance October 18 has to him on X, formerly Twitter. NFL reporter Ari Meirov posted a video commemorating the play's anniversary and tagged McAfee. The latter wasn't exactly delighted.
"Whoa Ari," McAfee responded twice, though with a few more vowels.
"The play will never die," Meirov said.
Here's a refresher on exactly what happened during the "Colts Catastrophe" and McAfee's explanation of how the play was supposed to go.
Happy Anniversary, 'Colts Catastrophe'
The Colts hosted the Patriots in a Week 6 Sunday Night Football matchup on October 18, 2015.
Toward the end of the third quarter, the Colts faced a fourth-and-three from their own 37-yard line while trailing, 27-21. McAfee and the punt team took the field. And then there was chaos.
McAfee and most of the punt unit jogged over to the right side of the field, while wide receiver Griff Whalen took over as the "center" and safety Colt Anderson stood behind him as the "quarterback." As the play clock ran down, Anderson went under center and eventually took a snap from Whalen. The Patriots immediately tackled Anderson for loss.
"What the heck?" NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth said.
"What in the world?" play-by-play commentator Al Michaels responded.
"There were three, four, five guys around two players," Collinsworth said. "That was insane. You've got a guy on either side of him. What are you doing here? They don't even try to run a play. We've seen a lot of bizarre stuff. I've never seen anything more bizarre than that."
Colts coaches and players looked confused on the sideline. And to make matters worse, a flag for illegal formation was called on the Colts because "the whole right side of the line was not on the line of scrimmage."
The Patriots eventually won the game, 34-27.
McAfee Explains the 'Worst Play in NFL History'
Chuck Pagano, the head coach of the Colts at the time, explained after the game that the whole idea of the play was to shift and catch the Patriots misaligned or in a substitution error.
"We shifted over and I didn't do a good enough job coaching it during the week," Pagano said in 2015. "Alignment-wise, we weren't lined up correctly and we had a communication breakdown between the quarterback and snapper. That's on me."
McAfee used the four-year anniversary of this baffling play to provide a deeper explanation.
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During a 2019 episode of The Pat McAfee Show, titled "Pat McAfee explains the worst play in NFL history," the former punter explained that the Colts were looking for ways to keep the ball out of Tom Brady's hands going into that game against the Patriots. McAfee said the Colts had an "incredible plan" for a mock fake punt that was supposed to catch New England in a substitution error and result in an Indianapolis first down or, at worst, a delay of game penalty.
"In theory, in practice, it was magical," McAfee said at the time.
The Colts practiced the play all week, McAfee said. Well, most of the punt team did. McAfee said that not long before the game, the player who was supposed to snap the ball on the play got sick and wasn't available to play. Indianapolis turned to Whalen, who McAfee described as a utility player the Colts could trust, instead. McAfee said in the Colts' playbook, it was instructed that if the center feels someone ready to take a snap on that trick play, he should snap the ball.
Well, a Colts coach also told Anderson to try and draw the Patriots offsides on the play if needed, according to McAfee. That message was not relayed to Whalen. When the Colts lined up for the play in a game setting, the Patriots reacted "perfectly," McAfee said.
"The worst play in football history happens in that moment," he said.
The miscommunication between Whalen, Anderson, and just about everybody in a blue uniform led to perhaps the least-successful fake punt ever. On the one-year anniversary of the play, the NFL's own website described McAfee's face while walking off the field after that play as "like a guy back from war who saw too much."
Perhaps McAfee will relive the moment again during his show Wednesday. It appears he can't get away from the "Colts Catastrophe" anyway.
"If that play works, we're talking about it on the complete other side," McAfee said in 2019. "'Remember that one time the Colts outsmarted the New England Patriots?' But instead, the complete opposite has happened where it is known as the worst football play in history.
"My name will forever be attached to it."
Uncommon Knowledge
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