Patriots WR Kayshon Boutte opens up about ‘dumb decision’ regarding his controversial incident

FOXBOROUGH, Mass - With the entire gambling incident behind him, New England Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte took a moment to speak about the incident and what he learned from it all.

“I’ll just say it was a dumb decision on me when I was young,” Boutte said following Sunday’s practice. “It’s a process I had to go through. Unfortunately, it happened. But it’s life. Now it’s behind us. And we’re focused on football.”

Boutte was arrested in January after being charged with computer fraud due to bets he made while he played at LSU. He was released from jail after posting a $600,000 bond later that same day.

He was accused of creating an online betting account under a fake name and then proceeded to place illegal bets while he was under the age of 21. During that time, he allegedly earned more than $500,000 in winnings, having placed nearly 9,000 illegal bets. 17 of those bets were said to be on college football games, including six that included LSU.

But the charges were dropped in the middle of July, just before training camp began.

And he's happy to just be able to focus on the season ahead without the legal issues serving as a distraction.

“It’s only football from here,” he said. “It feels good not thinking about what’s going to happen every day. Just coming out and playing free.”

Boutte was also asked if he knew why the charges were dropped, but the receiver decided not to comment on that.

“I’d just rather not talk about it," he said.

The NFL does allow players to bet on other sports, but Boutte has decided to step away from it all after this incident.

“I just feel like I need to stay away from it,” Boutte explained. “It’s not like I’m really addicted or nothing, but it’s just something I need to let go.

"I wouldn’t try it again knowing that something worse could come of it. Like you live and you learn. Like Coach (Mayo) say, you don’t want to make the same mistake twice.”

Throughout everything, head coach Jerod Mayo stood up for the young receiver. He acknowledged that it was a mistake, but that he can use it as a learning experience.

“I think it’s important to remember some of these guys are very young and they’ve made mistakes in the past." It’s easy to just throw them away but there are certain instances where you’re like, ‘Alright, I can help this guy out.’ And I feel like we have a good player development group there that will definitely help us going forward,” Mayo said.

And Boutte really appreciated how the head coach was always in his corner.

“I’ll just say it’s good having a coach knowing how you feel about a certain situation and just letting you know everything’s OK,” Boutte said.