Former Minnesota Vikings receiver Blake Proehl will be a featured contestant on the next season of American Idol, which will kick off on Feb. 18.
Proehl's audition was featured in a recent vignette for the upcoming season as host Ryan Seacrest explained Proehl's backstory before he sang a line from Brett Young's country hit "In Case You Didn't Know."
While Proehl is the son of former wide receiver Ricky Proehl, who played 17 years in the NFL, his story is more than being part of a famous bloodline.
Proehl starred at East Carolina and signed with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent following the 2021 NFL Draft. Proehl suffered a torn ACL in training camp and missed his entire rookie season but spent his spare time working on his musical career.
A video of Proehl singing to his grandma went viral and Proehl released his first single "Falling for You" in March 2022. He released a second single "Where You Need To Be" later in the year. Proehl returned to the field during the 2022 season but never saw regular season action with the Vikings, as he spent that season on the practice squad and was waived by Minnesota in 2023.
Despite his football career coming to an end, Proehl's music career was just beginning. Proehl headlined a show at Minneapolis's hallowed First Avenue last July and another video of him singing went viral last summer as part of a backyard concert for Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Proehl's vignette carries some of this story as he explains that some doctors believed he wouldn't be able to run after suffering the knee injury, and during the preview of his audition fans are shown that his grandma joined him for the moment in front of judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.
While Perry gave her endorsement at the end of the vignette, you'll have to tune in on Feb. 18 to see if Proehl received the vaunted golden ticket.
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