It has been quite a year for Patriots receiver Kayshon Boutte, who opened training camp last summer as a question mark to even make the roster but has since established himself as reliable deep threat for quarterback Drake Maye. Boutte finished the year with 33 catches and 551 yards, for an average of 16.7 yards per catch–that was fourth in the NFL. He also added six touchdowns.

Boutte was less of a factor for the offense after he suffered a hamstring injury in Week 9 and came out early in that narrow win over Atlanta, then missed two games. He also had a concussion that cost him the Week 17 win over the Jets. But he came up big on Sunday in the playoffs against the Chargers, when he logged four catches on four targets for 66 yards.

Three of Boutte’s four catches were third-down receptions that converted first downs, and it was in those gotta-have-it situations that Maye had looked for Boutte so frequently early in the year. He had a 42-yard catch in the third quarter that set up a New England field goal, and his third-and-9 conversion from Maye in the fourth set up Maye’s only touchdown pass of the game.

Kayshon Boutte: ‘How the Hell Did I Get Here???’

But Boutte also took a big personal step last week that was less discussed–he opened up about his online gambling addiction, an issue that has become more and more fraught for pro sports athletes who can get themselves in debt with the ease of online gambling, then find themselves needing to cheat their way out of that debt during their games.

Boutte wrote an article, titled, “How the Hell Did I Get Here?” in The Players’ Tribune about his gambling addiction, which blossomed while he was at LSU and resulted in state charges that were later dropped. Boutte said his downward cycle started when he injured his ankle during a game as a sophomore with the Tigers.

He wrote: “That’s how I ended up going down a dark road. That’s how I ended up pacing around my apartment at 3 o’clock in the morning, betting on whatever I could bet on at that time of night. I don’t even know….. It honestly didn’t matter. You’re just caught in the cycle.

“That’s how I damn near ruined my life.”

Patriots Vrabel Praises Kayshon Boutte

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel was aware of Boutte’s past problems and praised him this week for coming forward about it.

“That’s not easy to do,” Vrabel said on Monday. “I told him I know that will help a lot of people. He’s, I would say, a private person, but I have seen a lot of growth from him personally. It’s important to him. This team means a lot to him. He competes.

“He seems to always kind of come through when we need him, just like he did again last night. For him to be able to open up and share those things publicly and as candidly as he did, I was really proud of him. I said that immediately when I saw it, and I think it just shows a lot of growth. That’s not easy to do.”

Patriots Did Not Give Up

Boutte wrote in his article that the two things that saved him were getting healthy and getting back on the football field, and the birth of his son during his junior year which caused him to tell himself, “Bruh, the way you living ain’t healthy.” He credited the Patriots, too, for not giving up on him even after the Louisiana charges came up.

He hopes other teams learn from the way the Patriots treated him.

“So if I have a message for the football world, I guess it’s this: Don’t give up on these kids, man,” he wrote. “I know there’s more stories like mine out there. Betting is just gonna keep getting bigger and bigger. Gambling is what it is. I’m not here to preach. It’s going to exist. But people who are in a dark place, they’re gonna use it to escape. Athletes, especially. I’m telling you, because I lived it.”