Matt Overton: Never just a football player in Indy

INDIANAPOLIS – Matt Overton has had harder days than Monday, when the Indianapolis Colts handed him a pink slip after five seasons. He’s been cut plenty of times before.

Once, by a United Football League team that promptly asked him to come work in its community relations department.

That’s Overton. His memorable five-season run with the Colts, where he made a Pro Bowl and paired with popular punter Pat McAfee and iconic kicker Adam Vinatieri to form one of the top units in football, came to a close when the Colts released him, along with nine other players, in a post-draft purge.

The rather surprising move comes with Overton having two years left on the four-year deal he signed in 2015.

Like the Colts’ former punter, Overton was never just a football player around Indianapolis: He was a bridge between the team and its fans. He escorted sick Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health patients to Justin Bieber concerts, he opened up tailgating lots for Colts fans south of Lucas Oil Stadium, he supported local law enforcement, heck, he even live-tweeted episodes of “The Bachelor.”

Behind McAfee, he might’ve been one of the most well-liked Colts of the past few seasons.

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Yet few truly know how improbable Overton’s road to Indianapolis was. At his lowest point, Overton was collecting unemployment checks in Omaha and sleeping on the couch of a convicted felon named Maurice Clarett. Talk about a long shot.

That he scraped his way into the NFL two years later is a testament to a resilience few athletes can claim.

“All he had was a dream and a few dollars in his pocket,” Clarett said of Overton in 2013. “He’s like a modern-day Rudy.”

After graduating from Western Washington in 2007, Overton spent training camp with the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent. He was cut. He spent 2008 in the Indoor Football League, playing for an af2 team called the Tri-Cities Fever. Then the UFL's Florida Tuskers. Then another shot with the Seahawks in 2010.

Cut again.

Tried out for the Houston Texans.

Cut again.

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He landed in Omaha, played two years for the UFL's Nighthawks, and crossed paths with Clarett, the former Ohio State star who had busted out of the NFL. Clarett offered up his couch. The two rose at 6 a.m. each day, chasing a dream that was fading fast. Only one of them would make it.

“At that point, all he knew was defeat,” said Overton’s agent, Derrick Fox. “I’ve been in this business for a long time. That’s when most guys quit.”

Then, his big break: It was Clarett who encouraged Overton to give it one last go, to hop on a plane for Arizona in the spring of 2012 and take part in a long-snapping clinic in hopes he’d catch an NFL team’s eye. He did. Brant Boyer, then the Colts’ assistant special teams coach, saw him that day and invited him to Indianapolis.

Overton competed with incumbent Justin Snow for three weeks at training camp that summer. He won the job. He made a Pro Bowl in 2013, started 80 games and lasted five seasons. Overton was scheduled to make $900,000 this season; replacing him with a player making the rookie minimum would save $435,000.

He was the unsung hero of the Colts’ stellar kicking unit, snapping to McAfee, who would make two Pro Bowls during that span and become the game’s best player at his position, and Vinatieri, who nearly went perfect in 2014 and set the NFL’s all-time record for consecutive makes this past fall.

“There’s times in the games when we’re about to kick a game-winning field goal, where I’m about to snap to Vinatieri, and I’m like, ‘Holy (expletive), I’m about to snap to Vinatieri to win this game,'” Overton said early in his career. “Just stuff like that is incredible.”

But he always did more. After McAfee stunned the Colts with his retirement in late January, Overton posed on a street corner with a cardboard sign that read, “Just lost my punter. Hugs needed!”

He took ride-alongs with the Indianapolis Police Department, eyeing a career in law enforcement whenever football was over. Overton’s father worked 31 years as a cop. This past November, Overton honored fallen Stanislaus County Sherriff’s Deputy Dennis Wallace by writing his name on his cleats.

He was among the most visible Colts out in the community, relentlessly pouring his free time into the city that became his home.

Reached Monday morning, Overton wasn't yet ready to comment on the Colts' decision or his time in Indianapolis. One thing was for certain: The city won't see another one quite like him for some time.

Colts cuts: In addition to Overton, the Colts waived former Canadian Football League standout Alex Bazzie, who finished fourth in the CFL last season with 11 sacks. Bazzie, signed in January by former GM Ryan Grigson, would have been a project for the Colts as an outside linebacker who weighs just 228 pounds. Also released to make room for rookies on the 90-man roster was safety Duke Williams and punter Devon Bell, long snapper Joe Fortunato, cornerback Charles James, inside linebacker Deon King, safety Stefan McClure, cornerback Larry Scott and wide receiver Devin Street.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.