Pat McAfee revealed that his family was blindsided by the unexpected death of his father-in-law, Bob, on Monday.
McAfee had surprisingly missed WWE “Raw,” which was taking place in his adopted hometown of Indianapolis on the evening that the company and city had announced a long-term deal to bring the 2025 Royal Rumble and eventually SummerSlam and WrestleMania to Lucas Oil Stadium.
On his ESPN and YouTube show on Tuesday, McAfee explained what happened.
“Yesterday was a day that will obviously be remembered forever in our family because my father-in-law passed away unexpectedly after the show ended yesterday in a hospital here in Indianapolis, In.,” McAfee said.
“He had been in the hospital fighting an infection and on Friday we were told that he was probably going to be discharged. By Sunday he had figured it out and he was going to be OK, so we were all in high hopes with incredible optimism and then yesterday, literally as the show is ending, my wife calls me and said I have to get to the hospital because there’d been an emergency.”
McAfee, who married his wife, Samantha, in 2020, continued to describe Monday’s events.
“I head over there, and what my wife, and her mom, and her aunt, and everybody in her family saw go on was her dad being a badass, and trying to kick ass, and inevitably losing his fight in this particular day,” McAfee said.
“Whenever something blindsides an entire family like that, obviously it can be wildly devastating. My wife is a daddy’s girl. She actually has a bear tattooed on her because she calls her dad Papa Bear. She has her dad’s quotes all over her.
“So, last night was obviously a very difficult night for our family. It was a nice reminder — thankfully, my wife and her mom, the last things they said to her dad, Bob, who was a great man, was ‘I love you’ — and I think this was a nice piece of perspective and a nice moment to tell your people you love them. You literally have no idea what’s going to come. It can literally be the last time you see somebody any time that you see them.”
McAfee thanked his audience for bearing with him.
“A lot of people tell us that our show helps them escape things, and that’s what it is for me today, and I can’t thank you all enough,” he said. “And [to] my wife, and her mom, I love you.”
