The past decade has apparently been a golden age of popular cult hero NFL punters. The Seahawks’ Jon Ryan is outspoken and beloved, former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has been extremely polarizing but has carved out a fine career for himself outside of football, and the recently retired Pat McAfee became a darling to many sports fans for his on-field antics and amazing social media presence.
McAfee is retired from the NFL at just age 30 and is apparently looking for something to do, because the burgeoning comedian appears to be making the transition to the squared circle — or at least he’s seriously thinking about it. He’s built himself a wrestling ring, and has recently taken some advisory meetings with veteran wrestler and head trainer of Ohio Valley Wrestling, Rip Rogers. His Instagram image of him inside his ring is accompanied by the caption, “Let’s do this.” So maybe he’s doing this!
You may remember Rip Rogers from the recent kerfuffle about what he feels is the needlessly breakneck pace of modern independent wrestling. Randy Orton helped that “… dive” controversy explode when he signal-boosted it in his own, inimitable Randy Orton way. If McAfee is linking up with Rogers to be ironic, he’s definitely nailing it. And if he’s not … well, you can certainly have far worse trainers when you’re trying to break into pro wrestling.
We’ll likely find out in short order just how serious McAfee is about trying to become a pro wrestler, and rest assured we’ll keep you posted.
