Kayshon Boutte is set to make his NFL playoff debut on Sunday night with the New England Patriots, but the wide receiver has revealed that he nearly threw it all away in college.
In an essay published in The Players’ Tribune this week, Boutte shared details of his gambling addiction, which started when he was injured while playing at Louisiana State University.
Boutte said that he lost US$90,000 gambling and it nearly cost him a shot at the NFL, too.
“I was 20. I was at LSU. Full ride. Whole future ahead of me. And I didn’t care at all,” he wrote for the outlet. “Some people hit the slots, the tables, the apps, spend what they can spend, and go home — or put the phone down. Not me.
“I’d wake up early in the morning and the first thing I’d do was bet. I’d stay up late and bet. All day. All night. I had insomnia, so if I woke up in the middle of the night, phone next to the bed, I’d bet. Any little money I had, it was going straight to FanDuel.
“I knew I was addicted. When you lose, and you’re an addict, there’s this voice in the back of your mind like, No, no, no … I gotta get my money back. I GOTTA get it back.”
He hit ‘rock bottom’
Boutte said that he hit rock bottom and had gambled until he “was completely broke.”
“When it was all said and done, I put in around $90,000 of my own money, and lost it all,” he wrote. “That’s like taking a duffel bag stuffed with 90 bands and just emptying it over a bridge or something. Throwing it in the wind. Dollars floating away. Gone.
“At a certain point, when you hit rock bottom, every gambling addict has this moment when you layin’ in bed just seeing $0.00 on the app. And you know that’s your last.”
Boutte, now 23, said that part of what helped him break away from his addiction and turn his life around was becoming a father, sharing that he wanted to live up to the standard set by his own dad.
The Patriots showed that they believed in him, making him their sixth-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft.
Now in his third year as a pro, Boutte has become the team’s top deep threat and had a career-high six touchdowns this season.
Boutte commended the team for sticking by him after he was arrested on underage gambling and computer fraud charges in January 2024 — charges that were later dropped.