Sam Hartman has not played a regular-season game for the Washington Commanders. The 27-year-old practice-squad quarterback will still lead season 30 of The Bachelor.
ABC has scheduled the premiere for Sunday, March 21, 2027, at 8 p.m. ET, ABC News reported. The Commanders announced the casting. Hartman said he is excited and nervous about the search for love. The part he is already bracing for is the talking.
Thirty Conversations
"I have a tough time holding conversation with one girl. 30 is going to be pretty tough," Hartman told ABC News.
The series carrying that assignment has been off the air for two years, Variety reported, and season 30 is the return. The franchise did not vanish in the gap. Bachelor in Paradise season 10 aired in summer 2025, and Variety identified it as the most recent entry before Hartman's season.
His episodes will not stay on broadcast alone. The Commanders said the season will stream on Hulu the day after it airs on ABC.
Undrafted and Still Waiting
The Athletic reported that Washington signed Hartman as an undrafted free agent in 2024. He has played in the preseason. He has never played in a regular-season game, and he remains on the practice squad.
The calendars are already out of order. ABC can name the Sunday when Hartman walks out as the lead. The Commanders cannot yet name a Sunday when he has taken a regular-season snap.
An ACC Record, Then a Diagnosis
College football had a louder stat line. Hartman finished his career with 134 passing touchdowns, an ACC record, ABC News reported. NBC4 Washington also credits him with the conference record for 300-yard passing games. He is from Charlotte, North Carolina.
The season count behind those numbers depends on the account. The Commanders say he played four seasons at Wake Forest before a season at Notre Dame. The Athletic counts five seasons at Wake Forest and one at Notre Dame.
In 2022, while he was at Wake Forest, Hartman was diagnosed with Paget-Schroetter syndrome and returned to the field that season, ABC News reported. The National Library of Medicine describes the syndrome as causing blood clots in a vein near the collarbone.
That same year he won the ACC Brian Piccolo Award. Notre Dame's roster page says the award, given annually since 1970 in memory of Brian Piccolo, goes to the most courageous football player in the conference.
Quarterbacks the Show Has Cast Before
Hartman is not the first quarterback in this chair. In 2004, for its fifth season, The Bachelor cast its first athlete lead, New York Giants quarterback Jesse Palmer, The Athletic reported in 2020.
Colton Underwood took a longer route. He reached the final four on Becca Kufrin's 2018 season of The Bachelorette, continued on Bachelor in Paradise, and led season 23 in 2019. The Athletic's account of Hartman's casting identifies Underwood as an Oakland Raiders practice-squad member. A practice-squad quarterback as the lead is not a new idea. It is Hartman's current job.
The first season of The Bachelorette had already included former college players Ryan Sutter, Jeff Popovich and Bob Guiney. That 2020 look at the franchise also found sports-themed dates in nearly every season, including contestants put into a tackle football game.
March 21 Is Already Scheduled
Season 30 premieres Sunday, March 21, 2027, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Hulu gets the episode the next day. Hartman's regular-season debut is the appearance that still does not have a time.
