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Following a turbulent year for “The Bachelor” franchise, ABC is returning to a familiar well: professional football.
The network announced Friday that Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Hartman will be handing out roses on the show’s 30th season.
Season 30 will premiere March 21, the network said in a statement. Hartman, 27, is a member of the Commanders’ practice squad and has yet to play in a regular-season game.
He appeared Friday on “Good Morning America,” coming shortly after the Commanders’ victory over the New York Giants on Thursday night.
“I have a tough time holding conversation with one girl; 30 is going to be pretty tough,” he joked to the hosts.
He said his initial reaction to the proposal was “no way” — but a conversation with show host Jesse Palmer changed his mind.
Palmer himself was a lead on “The Bachelor” during its fifth season while serving as quarterback for the Giants.
Colton Underwood and Clayton Echard, both former contestants on “The Bachelorette” who later became leads on “The Bachelor,” also had brief NFL careers, with Underwood on practice squads and Echard attending a training camp.
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Mel Owens, the titular lead for season two of the “Golden Bachelor” spinoff, was a linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams.
Hartman’s selection again breaks with the traditional formula of choosing leads from past seasons of “The Bachelorette” and “The Bachelor.”
ABC attempted that last year when it selected “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Taylor Frankie Paul for “The Bachelorette,” but that experiment ended with the season being canceled entirely in March amid domestic abuse allegations.
No show in “The Bachelor” universe has aired since summer 2025’s “Bachelor in Paradise,” a remarkable hiatus for a franchise that has been a constant in reality television since 2002.
Hartman, a Charlotte, North Carolina, native who played college football at Wake Forest and Notre Dame, admitted he was nervous.
He told the “Good Morning America” hosts his criteria for a would-be fiancée included someone he could chase.
“Chase in the way they have a drive for something that motivates me to wake up every day and chase them” — and “compassion and some type of caregiving,” citing his family history in the medical field.
“They gotta be ready to bring their competitive spirit,” he said.