Hometown: Toronto, Ontario Birthday: October 5, 1978 Height: 6’2

What do we know about Jesse Palmer?

Heroes are made not born. 

The son of a professional football player and a model (and model agency founder), Jesse Palmer was basically destined to become the host of The Bachelor.

Sure, his dad played in the Canadian Football League (CFL), which is less popular than the sport of curling in the Great White North. And yeah, Ottawa isn’t exactly a fashion hub. But being born in Canada may have given him a competitive advantage in becoming The Bachelor host – see recent ring winners Nayte & Blake for other examples of Canadian domination.

Jesse’s mother left the fashion industry to pursue her passion of making doll dioramas. We love that for her. Inspired, we made one of our own.

How come we have no memory of Jesse Palmer playing football?

It’s unusual for Canadian football players to make it big in the NFL and Jesse is no exception. He rose to fame(ish) as a backup quarterback for the New York Giants from 2001 to 2005. He played in five games during his five-year stint and his most notable moment was getting sacked.

This play was celebrated by the other team because it meant that Bruce Smith became the all-time career sack leader. (A title he still holds today. Good job, Jesse. You’re a part of history!)

After being sacked from the Giants, Jesse went on a few group dates with teams from the Canadian and American National Football Leagues but he wasn’t chosen for any one-on-one time.

What do we know about his time on The Bachelor?

It was in 2004 while he was still (technically) an NFL player that Jesse Palmer was chosen as the fifth Bachelor. He famously fumbled the ball on his season, where he is best remembered for calling the wrong girl’s name.

He did not propose to his final pick, Jessica, and they broke up a couple of months later.

We couldn’t review his season because ABC has locked it in the vault. We don’t know their reasons for this, but – like most reality television including much more recent seasons of The Bachelor – we can’t imagine it aged super well.

When asked about his time on The Bachelor,

“Palmer also said that it was a great experience, but that he wouldn’t do it again. ‘It’s a fantasy,’ he said. The former quarterback added, ‘You set the bar too high because you can’t take helicopter rides all the time.’”

Huh. It sounds like someone doesn’t trust the process.

Regardless, Jesse blazed a trail for future bachelors with influencer aspirations. He was able to parlay his time on The Bachelor into a job talking about football on television. He’s done a lot of color commentary and A LOT of ads.

At this point, Jesse has clocked more hours playing an NFL quarterback in commercials than he did in Giants Stadium.

Jesse also has hosting experience, having fronted Food Network fluff like The Holiday Baking Championship. This might be a rougher crowd than he’s used to, but luckily the contestants on The Bachelor don’t get knives. 

But, who is Jesse Palmer really? 

We’ll never know. We can’t imagine they didn’t vet that man to the nth degree and thoroughly scrub the internet of any potential misdeed. (At least, they vetted him better than regular cast members like Jamie.)

But if he actually has managed not to say or do anything controversial in twenty years, then Jesse Palmer really may be the man of ABC’s dreams. And, having been through this exact process before, Jesse probably is a good source of guidance for our current lead (and also former barely-an-NFL-player) Clayton Echard.

xo  Your Nosy Friends, Devotees of the Diorama Arts  

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