Marcus Freeman is certainly enjoying the NCAA football off-season.
The Notre Dame football head coach was spotted ringside at this year’s WWE Royal Rumble alongside his family, including his wife Joanna Freeman and at least a few of their six children: Vinny, 17, Siena, 12, Gino, 11, Nico, 9, Capri, 7, and Rocco, 6.
The family outing in Indianapolis comes just two weeks after Freeman, 39, and the Fighting Irish came up short in the College Football Championship game against Ohio State. While some may consider Freeman’s presence to be somewhat odd, the head coach is a reported lifetime fan of professional wrestling who grew up watching the WWE.
“I grew up watching it,” Freeman said during a media day ahead of the Championship game against Ohio, adding that he took his family to a Friday Night Smackdown event in Chicago in June 2024.
Notre Dame Coach Marcus Freeman’s Family Guide: Wife Joanna and 6 Kids
“I think at different phases you enjoy different things,” he continued. “When I was young, everything was real. You ended up idolizing the Hulk Hogans and Ultimate Warriors and all those guys.”
Freeman’s eldest son, Vinny, is a reported standout wrestler and football player at Penn High School, so the love of all things wrestling (and, you know, hitting people on a field or inside a ring) is a family affair.
“If we can get to a wrestling event and I can take my kids there, we try to,” Freeman continued. “Now it’s about seeing your kids happy. And if my kids want to go see wrestling, as a father I would try to do that.”
Freeman wasn’t the only headline-making star to sit ringside at this year’s Royal Rumble event — big names like Kurt Angle, Rick Steiner, John Mellencamp, Tyrese Haliburton, Kai Canet and O’Shea Jackson Jr. were also in attendance.
Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman Celebrated Bowl Win With His Entire Family
A WWE superstar returned inside the ring as well. Nikki Bella, who retired from full-time wrestling back in 2019, made a surprise appearance during the women’s all-out Royal Rumble. Wearing her iconic outfit featuring her backwards red hat, Nikki joined forced with her fellow wrestlers while inside the ring to try and defeat Nia Jax.
Nia Jax ultimately got the upper-hand and eliminated Nikki, before Charlotte Flair successfully secured the crown as the 2025 Royal Rumble women’s champion, securing herself a ticket to the 2025 Wrestlemania event in Las Vegas, Nevada.
As for Freeman, while he’s fresh off a championship loss — and the loss of Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator to the NFL – he still has plenty to celebrate. In January, Freeman received the American Heart Association’s Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year award, which recognizes his outstanding leadership and success after helping the Fighting Irish return to the national championship for the first time since 2003.
