PAT MCAFEE has clearly been holding back on the recent criticism facing the Indianapolis Colts, their owner Jim Irsay, and interim head coach Jeff Saturday.

Following Saturday's surprise appointment last week, all involved in the decision faced waves of criticism from the media given their new coach's lack of NFL coaching experience.

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Among those most vocal in speaking out against the hiring of the former Super Bowl-winning center were former All-Pro tackle Joe Thomas, Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher, and Good Morning Football host Kyle Brandt.

And during his show on Monday, following Indy's 25-20 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, McAfee went off on Thomas and Co.

McAfee admitted: "It has been a little bit difficult to sit here and relax and not just completely go Bananaland about Jeff Saturday, a friend of mine, former teammate taking over the Indianapolis Colts team which was completely inept before this week.

"It's been difficult not to just kind of start diving into the hypocrisy of the f**king losers on television who felt the need to be puppets."

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McAfee, a former All-Pro punter for the Colts, then went one by one and spoke out against each of these three prominent critics of Saturday's appointment.

He said: "I don't think Joe Thomas is a bad guy. I think he's a puppet, I don't think he's a bad guy. I think he felt obligated to say something because somebody told him how disrespected they felt."

Turning to former Super Bowl-winning coach Cowher, who he described as someone who "did a lot of great things for Pittsburgh," he pointed out that Cowher himself had been appointed at a young age.

McAfee explained: "He got hired at 34 in his hometown to be the head coach of the f**king Pittsburgh Steelers.

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"So, if he maybe caught a bunch of fire whenever he got hired for not earning and deserving the job that he took, and he now wants to project that onto Jeff Saturday, he can take that up with himself.

"But Bill Cowher, shut the f**k up dude. He said 'why didn't John Fox get the job? Why didn't Gus Bradley get the job?' It's their first year in the building, and to be honest the team has stunk since they got there."

This came after Cowher called Saturday's hiring "a disgrace to the coaching profession" on CBS.

With Saturday appearing on his show shortly after his rant, McAfee is clearly on Saturday and Irsay's side.

And the 35-year-old seemed keen to point out why he feels justified in supporting Saturday, saying: "Jeff Saturday gets an entire group to buy in. Jeff Saturday could potentially be the next blueprint for what teams might do in hiring former players."

He went on to explain: "I believe that this will help with the minority coaching percentages in the NFL if former players are able to get fast-tracked to more important positions as opposed to having to wait around and do bulls**t that you're supposed to do whenever you're 22, 23, 24, 25 yards old.

"Instead, they're in their 30s cause they had a very prolific NFL football career."

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In his closing argument to this epic rant, McAfee noted that he felt "everything he (Saturday) did was good" - specifically pointing out his decision to start quarterback Matt Ryan, and the improved play of the offensive line and running back Jonathan Taylor.

And in one final dig, McAfee explained: "I think it was a great day to remind these people that get on television and just echo sentiments that they're told to say like parrots and puppets, like you're allowed to think outside the box."

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