Pat McAfee has extended an olive branch to Canadians after his furious reaction to booing of the US national anthem at WWE’s Elimination Chambers event in Toronto on Saturday night.
The former NFL punter, who works as a commentator for WWE, was left seething when the Star-Spangled Banner was jeered loudly at Rogers Centre amid current political tensions between Canada and America.
‘These are the most stacked Elimination Chambers that the WWE has ever had,’ he fumed on the live broadcast. ‘Kinda sucks that it’s in the terrible country of Canada that booed our national anthem to start this entire thing!’
And after receiving fierce criticism over his ‘terrible country’ jibe, McAfee has issued an apology to any Canadians he offended on his latest ESPN show, despite initially defending the remark.
‘Now Canada, listen… there’s been some things said to me from Canadians that I guess I respect because of the passion that you have for your country, which I hope you understand that I was showing the same for mine,’ he said.
‘You booed my country. Now, I heard from a lot of Canadians, during the national anthem obviously, overwhelming boos, very loud boos.
Pat McAfee has extended an olive branch to Canadians after calling their country ‘terrible’
McAfee made the remark when the US national anthem was booed at a WWE event in Toronto
‘My entire life, my first reaction when somebody boos the national anthem is “f**k you.”‘
US and Canadian sports fans have been caught in a bitter back-and-forth of late after Donald Trump recently threatened to impose tariffs on America’s neighbors while branding them the ’51st state’.
Several sporting fixtures in both countries have been marred by the booing of national anthems in recent weeks, including in last month’s hockey final between the two neighbors in Boston.
McAfee continued: ‘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?”
‘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.’
He then continued: ‘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 my country, I called your country terrible… let’s shake hands.’
McAfee concluded his response by saying: ‘I love Canadians, but my first reaction whenever you boo our country is, “Well ok, let’s fight.”
US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Canada has sparked tensions of late
‘And I’m sorry… so let’s shake hands. Canada, I hope we can settle it.’
The rising political tensions between the longtime allies was at the center of the heated rivalry that played out at last month’s 4 Nations Face-Off international hockey tournament.
‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ was booed by Canadian fans when it was performed in Montreal, where the USA and Canada faced off during the round robin phase of the tournament – a game which saw three fights break out within nine seconds.
And the Americans didn’t hesitate to respond in kind, drowning out ‘O Canada’ when the two teams locked horns once again in Boston for the highly-anticipated final between the US and Canada.
It was the Canadians who had the last laugh, nevertheless, after emerging from TD Garden with a 3-2 overtime win and the 4 Nations trophy.
Following the triumph, outgoing Canadian PM Trudeau posted on X: ‘You can’t take our country – and you can’t take our game.’
