Pat Spillane has admitted he wanted to leave The Sunday Game because he wasn’t enjoying working on the programme anymore.
The 66-year-old Kerryman is set to leave The Sunday Game this weekend after 30 years.
But Pat joked that since his retirement was announced, people are wanting him to stay after years of trying to get rid of him, he claimed.
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He said: “For 30 years they wanted to get rid of me and now when I’m going, they want me to stay.”
“The Sunday Game doesn’t define me as a person. I speak on TV, but that’s not the person I am. It never was.”
But he said he was leaving because he found it “tough going”, admitting he wasn’t enjoying working on the programme anymore.
“I was finding it tough going and not really enjoying it anymore," he said. "Jeez, I’m 67 on my next birthday and you’re arriving home from Dublin at 3 o’clock in the morning, thinking there must be easier ways. And it’s a pressurised job too.
"I reckon The Sunday Game is one of the most scrutinised programmes on RTE, fair game for everyone to have a go at it.”
Pat also revealed he was once punched after a match as he left Croke Park stadium. The legendary GAA star was set upon by a group of disgruntled Donegal supporters after his commentary on The Sunday Game.
This came following Donegal's famously beat Cork to reach the All-Ireland final in 2012.
Pat said: "I once got punched by Donegal supporters on Clonliffe Road after a game.
"That day I ran to my car and was driving a bit fast down Clonliffe Road when a Ban Garda stopped me. 'You are speeding sir!' she said and I told her that I had just been attacked by a group of supporters and that they could still be after me.
"So yes, there were times it was like running with the bulls in Pamplona."
Reflecting on his final game this weekend, he told the RTÉ Guide: "Enoch Powell said that all political lives end in failure. So getting the last hurrah right is something many get wrong because they stay on too long.
"I left Kerry after playing in an All-Ireland semi final and now people are saying I should stay on and I am thinking that is great because I will ride out into the sunset on a high."
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