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Pat McAfee doubles down on calling out Canadians booing U.S. anthem: 'Lets shake hands and move along'

Chandler Vesselsby:Chandler Vessels•03/03/25•

ChandlerVessels

Pat McAfee
Andrew Wevers-USA TODAY Sports

Pat McAfee got himself into some hot water with the country of Canada while broadcasting a WWE event Saturday evening in Toronto. After the crowd at Rogers Centre booed a performance of the United States national anthem, the ESPN announcer went off.

“This is the most stacked Elimination Chamber that the WWE has ever had,” McAfee said on air. “Kind of sucks that it’s in the terrible country of Canada that booed our national anthem to start this entire thing.”

McAfee addressed the comments during his daily talk show on ESPN on Monday, and he didn’t back down from them. Instead, he offered to explain his side as an American and why the reaction from the crowd struck a chord with him.

“There’s been some things said to me by Canadians that, I guess I respect because of the passion you have for your country, which I hope you understand I was showing the same for mine,” McAfee said. “You booed my country. I heard from a lot of Canadians during the national anthem at the Rogers Centre. Overwhelming boo. Very loud boo. First reaction whenever the national anthem starts up there was for some of these Canadians to just start booing.

“My entire life, first reaction when someone boos the national anthem is, ‘f*** you.’ I’m very thankful that I am from Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania in the United States of America. I’m very proud that I’m from the United State of America. Is everything perfect? Absolutely not. But my dad went from being a truck driver to a millionaire because he taught his son a work ethic and that anything is possible on this land here in the United States. I know we’re not the only country that has that happen, but in my life, that is the case. I’ve also moved out here to Indiana and got a chance to meet a lot of military members. I’ve been to bases. I know people that have been affected for fighting for our country that really see the national anthem as ‘This is our sh*t.’ So any time I’ve ever heard somebody boo our national anthem, my natural reaction is, ‘Let’s fight.'”

This isn’t the first instance of Canada booing the U.S. national anthem since the election of Donald Trump as the 47th president in United States history. The anthem has also been booed at NHL and NBA games that took place in Canada after Trump imposed trading tariffs on the country.

Pat McAfee acknowledged that there is a lot of unrest both within the United States and across the entire world in the current moment. However, he sees sporting events as a way to bring people together, not divide them.

From his perspective, politics don’t even cross his mind when he thinks of Canada.

“A lot of Canadians have told me, ‘Why don’t you do a little investigating on why we’re booing? Did you hear what your president said?'” McAfee explained. “OK, listen. I understand there’s political differences at the current moment between us and Canada. But I feel like any time I think of Canada, I don’t think of what Justin Trudeau does. I don’t think immediately of what Canada is doing in the political sphere. I think of the people of Canada. I think of poutine. I think of the magical times that I had up in Niagara Falls as a teenager. Let’s not even talk about the adult ballets that introduced me to a lot of things in life. I think about loonies and toonies and good times. Mounties allowing teenagers to puke in their streets because maybe they were a little bit overserved.

“So I understand now from the Canadians that they have a lot more passion for their country than I could have ever imagined. A lot of terrible things have been said about me and I understand it. You booed our country. I called your country terrible. Let’s shake hands. You said you didn’t boo every member of the United States or every citizen. Well, I didn’t say Canadians were terrible. I said your country was. So you booed us, I said you’re terrible. Let’s shake hands and move along.”