Pat McAfee offered a touching tribute to Ryan Mallett.
Mallett, the former NFL quarterback who starred at Arkansas in college, died at 35 years old on Tuesday when he drowned off the coast of Florida.
On his show Wedneday, McAfee spoke about the times he spent socializing with Mallett.
“I got a chance to meet him a couple times. A f–king cool, cool dude,” McAfee said.
“Incredibly kind. He’s so f–king tall, and we were in Arkansas, so everybody knew who he was. Was nice to everybody. Dapped up everybody. And I believe he and John Daly might have even sung a song together that particular evening.”
McAfee spoke about how there was a magnetism about Mallett in the times they shared.
“It was cool to kind of meet him and know him. It was cool to see the reaction he drew of everybody that he had met in his life, and it was obviously a moment where we thought to ourselves, a dude who was in the NFL for seven years, was in incredible shape. Was seemingly a good guy, had good times, died at 35, drowning in a riptide,” McAfee said.
Pat McAfee offered a touching tribute to Ryan Mallett, who died in a drowning accident at 35 years old earlier this week. Twitter / Pat McAfee
Mallett starred at Arkansas before spending multiple seasons in the NFL. Getty Images“I assume that nobody thought whenever they went to the beach yesterday, and got in the ocean, that they were gonna come back with one less person.
“So remember that, whenever you wake up, that you had a chance to wake up. I think we all kind of need these types of things to happen, because when these things happen, it opens our eyes a bit to the petty bulls–t or negative thoughts about something, or the negative mood about having to do something, it’s like, you get to do something.”
McAfee and Mallett were contemporaries in the league.
McAfee as a Colts punter from 2009-’16, while Mallett quarterbacked for the Patriots, Texans and Ravens from 2012-’17.
McAfee continued to hammer down the life lessons to be taken from the tragedy.
“Let’s remember that. And let’s try to enjoy every f–king day. And not every day is great. I know there’s going to be times where life kicks you right in the balls, and I know that there are decisions that are completely out of your control that are going to haunt you and slow you down and affect your life, but let’s remember — if you can’t control it, who gives a f–k? Let’s keep it moving,” he said.
McAfee closed by telling Mallett to “rest in peace” and “rest easy” and thanked him for reminding us that “this could all be over at any time — it’s a shame, but also it’s an eye-opening experience.”
