ENTERTAINMENT
What NFL player is on American Idol? Get to know former Vikings receiver, now singer, Blake Proehl
Ex-Minnesota player Proehl has reached the Top 24 of the signing contest, leaving judges including Katy Perry and Lionel Richie impressed.
Former NFL player Blake Proehl’s American Idol dream remains alive after he made it into season 22′s Top 24 in Sunday’s “Showstoppers” round, which whittled the contestants down from 56. The 25-year-old’s performance of Shawn Mendes’ 2018 track “In My Blood” impressed judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie enough to earn him a spot in the “Top 24 at Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii” episodes, which will air across the next two Sundays.
Blake Proehl the son of Super Bowl champion Ricky
Singing, however, was not Proehl’s first career option, as you may have guessed by his surname. As longstanding NFL fans might have imagined, Blake is the son of former St. Louis Rams and Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Ricky Proehl, who played in the league for 17 seasons and won a Super Bowl each with the aforementioned teams.
It initially appeared as if Proehl junior would follow in his father’s footsteps. Also a wide receiver, Blake had a fine college football career with the East Carolina Pirates, who he played for for four seasons.
Why did Proehl leave the Vikings and the NFL?
At the end of his junior season, he announced he would skip his final year at ECU and enter the 2021 NFL Draft, signing for the Minnesota Vikings as a free agent a short time later after being undrafted. However, he suffered a bad knee injury - tearing “a bunch of stuff” - that same year and was waived in August 2023.
Proehl’s spell in rehabilitation, for some of which he was unable to walk, did at least allow him to rediscover his love for music, which he says “saved” him and eventually led him to auditioning for American Idol.
The ex-football player had his grandmother alongside him for moral support during his audition, with Perry especially impressed with what she heard, claiming Proehl had the potential to be “top 10″. Blake is almost halfway there.