Tragic Details Of Pat McAfee

The following article includes mention of suicide.

It's not hyperbole to point to the meteoric rise of Pat McAfee — first in the milieu of professional sports, and then in a whole new field entirely. A star punter for the Indianapolis Colts from 2009 until 2016, McAfee distinguished himself as one of the strongest and most accurate kickers in the league. Post-NFL, he went on to establish himself as one of the most listened-to sports podcasters, garnering millions of fans for "The Pat McAfee Show," which has evolved from its origins on Barstool Sports through several iterations until finding its home (although, given his history, probably not last) on EPSN.

McAfee has never been shy about voicing his opinions, which has bolstered his profile as one of the most entertaining voices in the world of sports. Yet, as his hardcore fans well know, there's also a dark undercurrent that's been a part of it all. Sure, he's made multimillion-dollar deals after hitting the absolute pinnacle of professional sports, yet he's also experienced some particularly low points, dealing with his share of heartbreak, disappointment, and outright tragedy along the way. 

He's become pretty much ubiquitous in the media landscape, yet the road to the top has included some rough patches. To learn more about this complicated, controversial, and often hilarious sports star turned media mogul, read on to discover some tragic details of Pat McAfee.

Pat McAfee grew up playing soccer, developing a skill for kicking a ball great distances with a keen accuracy. As he grew older, he envisioned himself becoming a kicker in the NFL. McAfee was still in high school when the ambitious Pittsburgh teenager learned of a national kicking competition that was being held by college football scouts. McAfee knew he'd be able to nail it, but there was one big, seemingly insurmountable problem: the competition was being held in Miami and would cost him $1,500 to get there.

That was $1,500 he didn't have, and his journey could have ended then and there. Rather than throw in the towel, however, McAfee instead hatched an audacious make-or-break scheme. Learning about a shady basement poker game with high stakes and big bets, he borrowed $100 from a friend and staked himself in the game, with the aim of walking out of there with enough to get him to Miami. "Dumb thought. Blindly optimistic. Pretty narcissistic as well, now that I think about it," McAfee mused when he looked back on his plan while appearing on the "All the Smoke" podcast.

Yet despite all odds, McAfee's gambit worked. He won $1,400 at the game, and made it to Miami — where he kicked nine field goals, one after another, from increasingly further distances. That demonstration ultimately landed him a scholarship at West Virginia University, setting the table for the bright future that may never have materialized had he not been able to afford that flight to Florida.

While playing college football for the West Virginia University Mountaineers, Pat McAfee proved to be a standout as a punter and kicker, demonstrating an impressive knack for field goals that hit their mark. That said, no kicker has an impeccable record, and McAfee also had his share of missed kicks during his years at WVU. Sadly, McAfee's skills failed him during a crucial game, at the worst possible moment.

During a key 2007 game between the Mountaineers and the team's bitter rivals, the University of Pittsburgh Panthers — a matchup that fans had come to nickname the Backyard Brawl — McAfee botched two ridiculously easy kicks. Those missed kicks, which should have been no-brainers, contributed to the Mountaineers' 13-9 loss to the Panthers. That loss was not only embarrassing, but also cost the team an opportunity to play in that year's BSC championship game, which McAfee was confident WVU would win. After that loss, what had been a powerful college football team began to splinter — all of which rested on McAfee's shoulders.

McAfee was understandably distraught, a situation that wasn't helped by the savage vitriol he experienced from Mountaineers fans. That included death threats, disgruntled fans trashing his yard, and even vandalizing his car. "It just is a moment that I have tried to basically bury deep because of how much guilt I feel from what happened that evening," McAfee confessed during an episode of "The Pat McAfee Show." "It was just the worst night of my entire life."

Losing the opportunity to compete in the 2007 BSC championship game due to missing what should have been two easy kicks has haunted Pat McAfee ever since. As he recalled on "The Pat McAfee Show," his college team, the West Virginia University Mountaineers, was a powerhouse that would have dominated the championships. Feeling responsible for blowing that opportunity, McAfee contemplated giving up completely. He considered vanishing from college and retreating into the shadows. "I though about maybe disappearing, never being seen again after that — I was told it by a lot of people walking by our house," he said. "I hit rock bottom, I'd say, that evening."

Looking back on his despair, McAfee told Sports Illustrated that he felt so awful that he'd even flirted with the to-be-or-not-to-be notion considered by the tortured prince in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." "I didn't know if I wanted to live anymore," McAfee said. "My life changed immediately that day. It was a terrible f***ing night, to be honest with you."

He got in his car and drove, unsure whether he'd come back. Ultimately, he did, shouldering his responsibility for the loss and moving forward. Two years later, he was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts. That marked the beginning of an NFL career that definitely had its ups and downs over the years.

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Pat McAfee had only been on the Indianapolis Colts for about a year-and-a-half when a night of out-of-control inebriation and a swim in an Indianapolis canal led to his arrest. In October 2010, McAfee was picked up by cops when a woman called 911, claiming that a shirtless, dripping-wet, and clearly intoxicated man was attempting to break into her car. When officers arrived on the scene and asked McAfee how much he'd had to drink, McAfee delivered an answer that continues to draw chuckles to this day. "A lot," he said (via a report from NESN), "because I'm drunk."

After sobering up in a jail cell, the next morning McAfee called his father. As it turned out, his dad had already seen the headlines — and promptly hung up on him. "At that moment, I just wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear," McAfee told IndyStar in 2016, looking back at what was arguably his most infamous and embarrassing escapade.

However, McAfee's arrest and the attending negative publicity it generated proved to have a silver lining. "If it wasn't for that evening, I certainly wouldn't be in the NFL right now," he said in that interview, insisting that the public humiliation he experienced forced him to clean up his act. He was forced into the realization that he was jeopardizing the career he'd worked so hard to achieve, with his arrest serving as a brutal wakeup call. "I wouldn't have been able to keep up with how I was living and still perform at a good level," he admitted.

While Pat McAfee's self-destructive behavior could have cut short his career in the NFL, there were other factors that were also contributing to that very same outcome. In 2017, after eight years with the Indianapolis Colts, McAfee announced that he was retiring from the NFL. For his next act, he'd signed a deal to create content for Barstool Sports, the media entity founded by controversial media tycoon Dave Portnoy, responsible for launching the stellar career of "Call Her Daddy" host Alex Cooper.

Appearing on 1070 the Fan (via Stampede Blue), McAfee revealed that, even though he'd mostly avoided taking the kind of debilitating hits to the head that most NFL players tend to experience, the joints in his legs were essentially shot. "I mean, my brain and my shoulders are good, because I don't play a hand-to-hand combat position in the NFL, but my knees and joints have just been beat up," he said, contending that all the soccer he'd played in his youth had also contributed to his knees' deterioration.

Speaking about his retirement on "The Dan Patrick Show," McAfee confirmed that the condition of his knees had grown so bad that he'd already undergone surgery, with more on the horizon. "Well, staring down my third knee surgery in four years, with more surgeries certain for the future," McAfee explained, detailing the intense pain he was experiencing from playing the game that he loved. "The last half of this season I couldn't really walk much on days that I kick," he said. "I'd just go home and lay in bed and ice my knees. I felt like a 90-year-old man."

After his retirement from the NFL, Pat McAfee began carving out a niche in the world of podcasting, first with Barstool Sports before moving his eponymous podcast to other outlets before finally, in 2023, bringing "The Pat McAfee Show" to ESPN. McAfee had a firm belief that he'd be an asset as a football analyst on televised games, insistent that he could bring a lot to the table with commentary that was as entertaining as it was informed.

However, the executives who ran the sports divisions of American television networks did not share his belief. "I had a guy who was a pseudo agent for me who reached out to the networks to see if anybody had any interest in me," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "And that pseudo agent texts me back within like 10 minutes that there is zero interest from any of the TV networks."

That kind of scorched-earth rejection would level most people, but McAfee is not most people. "It put another chip on my shoulder," he explained. "Do I hold any grudges against anybody in the past who didn't hire me? Absolutely." He decided to get himself an actual agent, which ultimately led to a series of big, multimillion-dollar contracts — culminating with his 2023 ESPN deal, reportedly worth a hefty $85 million. Speaking about the executives who passed him over, McAfee promised his own form of retribution. "It's my job to make them look very dumb in five to 10 years," he declared.

Pat McAfee became a married man in 2020, tying the knot with longtime girlfriend Samantha Ludy. The following year, however, she shared a heartbreaking social media post revealing that they previously had a miscarriage — due to an ectopic pregnancy that forced her to have one of her fallopian tubes removed — and had just endured another one. That second miscarriage came with some severe complications that resulted in surgeons to removing her other fallopian tube. "They found I had internal bleeding again due to the pregnancy being in my tube and it had burst," she tweeted. "I needed emergency surgery to remove my remaining tube."

In November 2022, the couple announced some joyous news in a joint Instagram post, revealing they were expecting their first child. The loss of her fallopian tubes led them to pursue in vitro fertilization. While the couple were among the many celebrities who've had IVF treatments, by no means was the process an easy one. "It is physically demanding and emotionally challenging for the both of us," she wrote, confirming she was able to conceive "after about 150 shots, a surgery, a transfer, countless blood tests, waiting on embryos, genetic testing."

While losing two babies was no doubt tragic for the couple, they had much to celebrate when, in May 2023, they announced the birth of their newborn daughter. "Baby and Momma are both healthy," McAfee wrote via Instagram. "Momma and I are floating with joy. This is amazing."

Pat McAfee would be the first to concede that he's unapologetically outspoken, something that had engendered the devotion of his fans while also garnering occasional controversy. While he has brushed up against the latter on many occasions, he took it to a whole other level with some remarks he made about fellow NFL retiree Brett Favre.

At the time, Favre was experiencing a sad fall from grace, having been accused of engineering a scheme in which millions of dollars that had been earmarked as TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) funds — known colloquially as welfare funds — were shuttled to a volleyball facility utilized by his daughter. During an episode of "The Pat McAfee Show," McAfee weighed in on news stories about Favre's shady side. "Well, Brett shouldn't've f***ing stole from those people," McAfee said. Subsequently, AP reported that Favre sued McAfee for defamation. In his suit, Favre claimed that McAfee had referred to Favre as a "thief" who had been "stealing from poor people in Mississippi."

In subsequent episodes of his show, McAfee hilariously detailed the experience of being sued by the legendary quarterback. Recalling how he'd been served by an apologetic process server, McAfee claimed that Favre's intention was "to bankrupt me." Ultimately, though, Favre and McAfee buried the hatchet and settled the lawsuit. "I'm happy that Pat McAfee and I have settled this litigation," Favre tweeted. "Like Pat said, he was attempting to be funny and not commenting based on any personal knowledge."

During a June 2024 episode of his namesake show, Pat McAfee had some devastating news to share about someone very close to him. "Yesterday was a day that is obviously a day that'll 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, Indiana," McAfee said, via a clip he tweeted. As McAfee explained, his wife's father had been hospitalized with an unspecified infection. The treatment that he'd been undergoing had seemingly been working, and his family was told he was on the mend and would be discharged within a few days.

"We were all in high hopes with incredible optimism, and then yesterday, literally as the show was ending, my wife calls me and says that I have to get to the hospital because there had been an emergency," he continued, admitting he and the rest of his family were still in a state of shock over his unexpected passing. 

McAfee shared the wisdom that he'd taken from that tragic experience, noting that the final words his wife said to her father were "I love you." "I think this is a nice piece of perspective and a moment to tell everybody, 'Hey, tell your people you love them. You literally have no idea what's going to come,'" he expressed.

While Pat McAfee is best known for his near-decade in the NFL, he's also passionate about soccer. That came into play when he happened upon a televised broadcast of The Soccer Tournament, held by the CONCAFA Soccer Club. McAfee became so enamored with the club that he put together his own team and entered it into the 2024 tournament. McAfee, who grew up playing soccer, then announced that he'd be playing on that team.

Not surprisingly, McAfee's fans were chomping at the bit to watch him in action on the soccer pitch — to say nothing of seeing him face off with fellow NFL retiree J.J. Watt, part owner of Britain's Burnley FC soccer team. Sadly, that matchup never came to be, with McAfee revealing that he was out of commission due to a hip flexor that was either strained or full-on torn.

McAfee being McAfee, he announced the sad news of his injury via a tongue-in-cheek social media post masquerading as a news report. Citing a source, McAfee tweeted about his injury occurring "midstroke of his free kick" while playing Burnley FC "that missed the net by 40-50 yards." McAfee continued, writing, "The source would go on to say 'Pat was unable to stand up from the toilet this morning without some rather excruciating pain ... This is what 37 years old looks like for a guy who hasn't run in a few decades.'"