Pat McAfee’s Wife Sums up Her Feelings in 3-Word Message After He Wraps up an Emotional College Football Season

In June last year, Pat McAfee’s status for ESPN’s “College GameDay” was up in the air. He was left to question whether the harsh criticism his presence had generated and the social media mentions after every show were worth it. In a 2023 October poll by The Athletic, nearly 49 percent of respondents said they didn’t like him on the show. But not only did he return in true McAfee fashion, but also helped the show reach record viewership in its 38-year history.

Joined by Nick Saban, the former Colts player’s influence reached new heights. In a college football season filled with thrills, McAfee and Saban shared quite a few standout moments such as the former punter feeding steak to Alabama’s legendary coach. As the season came to a close, McAfee chose to look back at an eventful year in a ‘season-wrap’ post on Instagram.

McAfee took us through a series of snaps that encapsulated many moments from his GameDay experience with the caption, “Dumbest life of all time.. Thank you all for following along.” One of the photos includes comedian Shane Gillis, and immediately you think of those two words. Can you guess? Yes, we are talking about “Alabama Jones,” when Gillis hilariously poked fun at a rather serious-looking ‘we have never paid players’ Nick Saban. That incident took a life of its own as Saban, in a later interview, confessed that he did take it seriously. McAfee also shared a glimpse of his personal life, which was acknowledged by his wife Samantha McAfee.

We got adorable photos of his daughter and his wife, who took to the comment section to write a three-word message, a simple “We love you”. Pat replied to the comment writing, “I love yinz more.” His post carried more moments, that the college football fans would fondly recall.

One photo includes McAfee sitting with Marcus Freeman and Ryan Day, two head coaches who faced each other in the natty final. What did we remember? Well, McAfee brought a Lou Holtz look alike to confront Day, and the Buckeyes head coach was having none of it. Hilarious banter, indeed! Then, there are snaps with the College Game Day crew- the likes of Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Nick Saban- and of course, the whole of The Pat McAfee Show cast.

We also saw a photo of Pat McAfee, who is also a commentator for WWE’s RAW program, sharing a moment with longtime pro wrestling colleague, Michael Cole. Apart from the photo dump here, we also saw McAfee having some delightful and at times outlandish moments during the college football season.

During the show’s Week 12 visit to Georgia, Henry Silver, a soccer player stunned everyone during McAfee’s weekly kicking contest. The University of Georgia student drilled a 33-yard field goal to trigger $800,000 in prizes and donations. Later, it was revealed that Silver is a Colts fan and had a picture taken with McAfee during the latter’s playing days.

Then on September 14, as the “College GameDay” arrived in South Carolina for a game between the LSU and the Gamecocks, we saw McAfee and Saban share a hilarious moment.

Before one of the breaks, the crew was served a large tray of food with different meats. McAfee held up one of the tomahawk steaks and offered it to Saban, who then bent down and took a bite out of the steak.

Meanwhile, McAfee’s return has coincided with a significant increase the College GameDay’s viewership. The show totaled 30 million viewers in 2024—the most-watched regular season in the show’s nearly four-decade history.

“During the record-breaking 2024 season, GameDay averaged 2.2 million viewers for its best season ever—a 6% increase from 2023 and 5% over the prior season high,” the network wrote in its release. This represents a significant turnaround for McAfee after The Athletic poll had left him rethinking his future.

When he announced his return to the show in July, McAfee said, “Obviously, The Athletic poll came out last year and like 50 percent of the people were like, get this guy the hell off of ‘College GameDay’… For those people to have a terrible morning because of my existence was certainly something that weighed very heavy on this here dumbass sports dude’s heart.” However, after some deliberation, he had made up his mind.

“It was an actual decision based on … mostly do I want to sign up to hear in my mentions how terrible of a person I am by people who will never understand what type of human I am? Is that what I want to sign up for? We’re doing OK everywhere else. Every time I thought about it, I thought, I get the opportunity to do this. I need to do this. We can put this conversation to bed,” he said. The return has proved to be fruitful for McAfee and the network.

Meanwhile, apart from his college football exploits, McAfee did share his thoughts on the NFL proceedings often and the Colts were the target of one of his outbursts in the season.

When Pat McAfee went off on the Colts

Well, McAfee’s a chill guy! His show, unlike the shouty ones on ESPN, doesn’t really engage in non-stop drama. It’s chill, it’s light, and it’s full of banter. So when you see McAfee going off, you realize that someone has messed up. That someone was an entire organization: The Colts.

Pat exchanged words with the Colts locker room throughout the season. He called out quarterback Anthony Richardson for tapping out of a regular season game. He even criticized the veterans on the team for failing to instill discipline in the squad. And then there were responses from the other side. Sort of a cold war. It all came out when he saw his favorite team Indiana Colts getting thrown out of the playoff contention by the NY Giants. In the regular season game, they lost by 45-33 which also saw a subpar performance by their defense allowing Drew Lock to score 4 TDs.

He wrote on his X account, “A blind person could see the red flags on this team… Work ethic questions, NEVER happen on good teams… Preparation commitment questions, NEVER happen on good teams. Late meetings, NEVER happen on good teams… Late to/skipping treatment NEVER happens on good teams”.

Well, whatever Pat’s opinion on the Colts, his college football coverage was top-notch throughout the season. Especially his Field-Goal show attracting a huge audience for ESPN (2.4 Million) in the Rose Bowl. We should hope that Pat continues to keep us entertained in the coming seasons, with his slick accent and his ‘high’ tone.