FORMER NFL PLAYER JOINS AMERICAN IDOL THIS SEASON

Every year college football ends and there are thousands of players that never step on a field to play football again. There are also hundreds that try to take the next step to the NFL. After the NFL season is over the speculation on where and if any of those hundreds of players will be drafted to the their favorite team begins. Names like Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jared Verse, and Joe Alt will be taken near the top of the draft and their names will be bandied about which team will snatch them up. Other less accomplished players will be taken much later and even having a famous name won’t guarantee them a spot in professional football. Unless they graduated with a degree they might not have much to fall back on if they don’t make it in the NFL. One player may have enough talent to become famous in another area. Blake Proehl, the son of NFL player Ricky Proehl played well enough in college that the Minnesota Vikings brought him in to play wide receiver. He had some promising moments at Vikings training camp and he was kept on the team’s practice squad. Unfortunately, he suffered a major knee injury that ended his NFL career before it ever got going. I had always heard that Blake was a great singer and had been singing locally here and there. Now he’s going to the music equivalent of the NFL draft by trying out for American Idol. He was on the premiere episode the other night of the most recent season. Needless to say he blew away the judges. Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie all lauded his performance singing Brett Young’s “In Case You Didn’t Know”. Will this be a story of one door closing and another opening? We’ve got a few months to see how he does and whether fame will be found singing in stadiums rather than playing football in them.