It’s official: NFL quarterback Sam Hartman will be the next star of ABC’s The Bachelor for the franchise’s milestone 30th season. The network announced that Hartman — who is currently on the Washington Commanders practice squad — will be the show’s upcoming lead on Friday’s episode of Good Morning America. And the 27-year-old was in the studio to give his first interview as the newly minted lead.
“I have a tough time holding conversation with one girl — 30 is going to be pretty tough,” Hartman said. “I’m excited but also very nervous.”
Hartman said he was initially skeptical about being the next bachelor but eventually came around to the idea.
“I think anybody, in their right mind, if you get told, ‘Hey, you got a chance to go find the love of your life,'” he said. “I know one thing, you know, when people are saying ‘I do,’ they don’t ask you where you met. They just ask if you want to do it forever. And I don’t see any problem with that.”
Hartman’s turn as the franchise’s leading man comes after an extended hiatus for The Bachelor, which concluded its 29th season in March 2025. The break came amid behind-the-scenes leadership changes and declining viewership.
The franchise also faced scrutiny in the wake of Taylor Frankie Paul’s canceled season of The Bachelorette. Paul’s season was pulledafter videos of an alleged domestic violence incident resurfaced earlier this year.
A member of the practice squad
Following the 2024 NFL draft, Hartman signed with the Commanders as an undrafted free agent and has yet to play a regular season game. Before going pro, the Charlotte native played five seasons at Wake Forest University before transferring to Notre Dame in 2023 for his final college football season.
Hartman isn’t the first pro athlete to hand out roses. Jesse Palmer, a former University of Florida and New York Giants quarterback, led the show’s fifth season in 2004. Palmer, who now works as an ESPN college football analyst and hosts The Bachelor, helped convince Hartman to star in the upcoming season of The Bachelor.
“The connotation of [the show], I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ And then I got really lucky and talked to Jesse Palmer,” Hartman said on GMA. “He kind of gave me the insight and gave me kind of what it is and what it’s not.”
Jordan Rodgers, a contestant and eventual winner of The BacheloretteSeason 12, also has ties to football. Rodgers is an ESPN analyst, former NFL and CFL quarterback and the younger brother of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He found love with JoJo Fletcher, whom he married in 2022.
He’s looking for ‘competitiveness’
When it comes to his type, Hartman said he’s looking for a competitive woman.
“I think competitiveness and somebody that I want to be able to chase,” he said. “Not chase in a way that, like, ‘You haven’t texted me in a week,’ but like chase in a way that they have a drive for something and that motivates me to wake up every day and chase them.”
Hartman also said he values “compassion and some type of caregiving.”
“My whole family is in the medicine field,” he said. “There’s a part of me that seeing them do so much for other people, I think that’s a huge part.”
To this point, Hartman has mostly kept his dating life under wraps. During a 2024 podcast interview, however, he confirmed that he had a girlfriend. While he didn’t disclose her name, fans speculated that Hartman was dating Tyla Ochoa, a fellow athlete he met while attending Wake Forest. By 2025, speculation had grown that Hartman and Ochoa had broken up after they appeared to stop following each other on social media.
