{"id":664222,"date":"2026-01-08T16:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/664222\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:49:12","slug":"patriots-star-opens-up-about-gambling-addiction-and-inspirational-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/664222\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Star Opens Up About Gambling Addiction And Inspirational Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kayshon Boutte\u2019s NFL career has been a dream come true. A sixth-round draft pick by the New England Patriots in 2023, he\u2019s emerged as one of the team\u2019s best receivers over the last two years, helping them <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/2025\/12\/patriots-clinch-afc-east-with-bills-heartbreaking-loss-eagles\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">win the AFC East<\/a> and make the postseason this year.<\/p>\n<p>Boutte\u2019s NFL career nearly ended before it began, however, due to his gambling addiction at LSU. He recently opened up about his personal struggles in a candid article for \u201cThe Players\u2019 Tribune\u201d titled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theplayerstribune.com\/kayshon-boutte-new-england-patriots-nfl-football\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cHow The Hell Did I Get Here???\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was 20. I was at LSU. Full ride. Whole future ahead of me. And I didn\u2019t care at all,\u201d Boutte writes. \u201cI\u2019d wake up early in the morning, and the first thing I\u2019d do was bet. I\u2019d 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\u2019d bet. Any little money I had, it was going straight to FanDuel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boutte said he knew he was addicted and \u201cdamn near ruined my life,\u201d but he couldn\u2019t stop. At one point, he lost $90,000. <\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He got hurt during his sophomore year, and he had too much time on his hands. He was depressed and missed competing on the field, so he got into gambling as a way to fill that void.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, Boutte pulled out of it. He got healthy, allowing him to focus on football again. He also became a father during his junior year, which motivated him to take his mental health more seriously and turn things around.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old wideout hopes his story helps inspire other folks to do the same. Countless people, especially young men, have become addicted to gambling recently as many states have legalized sports betting over the last few years. Boutte\u2019s emotional story proves it\u2019s never too late to pull out of it and still achieve your dreams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kayshon Boutte\u2019s NFL career has been a dream come true. A sixth-round draft pick by the New England&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,6306,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-664222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kayshon-boutte","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115860508860483180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}