Sam Hartman Is the New Bachelor — a Commanders Quarterback Gets the Roses

Sam Hartman got off a plane from New York on Friday morning and walked into a television studio to announce the strangest job change of the NFL season. Hours earlier, his Washington Commanders had beaten the New York Giants 24-21 on Thursday night. By breakfast, ABC had named him the next Bachelor.

The announcement came live on Good Morning America, and Hartman did not pretend to be smooth about it. "I'm excited but also very nervous," he said. "I have a tough time holding conversation with one girl. Thirty is going to be pretty tough."

His teammates had spent the flight home giving him advice, People reported. He joked that he probably would not listen to any of it.

He said no first

Hartman's first answer, when the idea reached him, was "No way." He told Good Morning America the connotation of the show gave him pause. What changed his mind was a conversation with Jesse Palmer — the host of the franchise, and the one man who knows exactly what Hartman is stepping into. Palmer quarterbacked in the NFL, starred as the Bachelor in the show's fifth season, and has hosted the series since 2021.

"He kind of gave me the insight of what it is, what it's not," Hartman said. After that, the pitch got simpler. "Anybody in their right mind, if you get told, 'Hey, you got a chance to go find the love of your life' — when people are saying 'I do,' they don't ask you where you met, they just ask you if you want to do it forever. And I don't see any problem with that."

His parents are behind it, his mother especially. Their advice, he said, was to be himself and trust his gut. Asked what he is looking for, he gave an athlete's answer: competitiveness — somebody with drive, who motivates him to get up and chase the day.

The quarterback part is real

It would be easy to file Hartman as a television pick who happens to own a helmet. The college record says otherwise. The 27-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, spent five seasons at Wake Forest and one at Notre Dame, and he left the ACC holding its career records for touchdown passes and 300-yard passing games. His 110 touchdown passes at Wake Forest stand as a conference mark, and his career total of 134 ranks fourth in FBS history. He was the first FBS quarterback since Baker Mayfield in 2017 to reach 14,000 career passing yards, threw a touchdown in 35 straight games, and posted the second-best single-season passer rating in Notre Dame history in his one year there.

Television found him early, too. He was a fan favorite on the documentary series QB1: Beyond the Lights long before ABC came calling, which is part of why this casting makes sense to the network: the audience the show needs already knows his face.

The honest part of his football story is the rung he is standing on. Hartman went undrafted in 2024 and signed with Washington as a free agent. He has played in the preseason and never in a regular-season game. In August, the Commanders cut him; he re-signed to the practice squad the next day. ABC did not pick a star quarterback. It picked the most famous college quarterback the NFL is currently keeping on its practice squad — and that gap between the college fame and the pro reality is exactly the story the season will sell.

A franchise that needed a clean restart

The Bachelor has not aired in nearly two years. Its last season ended in March 2025, when Grant Ellis proposed in the finale; the couple split less than three months later. Since then, the franchise's planned season of The Bachelorette was pulled days before its scheduled premiere after footage from its lead's 2023 domestic dispute resurfaced, and the whole enterprise sat in public limbo while veterans of the show wondered aloud whether it would come back at all.

Hartman's season is the answer, and ABC is treating it as a milestone: the 30th season of the show, built around a lead with no connection to any previous season's cast. ABC's announcement called him a player "changing the game" and looking for his "forever teammate." For once, the sports language undersells it. The franchise did not cast inside its own bubble. It went and got a quarterback.

The Bachelor premieres Sunday, March 21, 2027, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, with episodes streaming the following day on Hulu. Hartman will spend the months between now and then as a practice-squad quarterback whose offseason plans are suddenly very public. Somewhere in Washington, his teammates are still offering advice he says he will not take.