Pro Football Focus’ Mike Renner analyzes his time on The Bachelorette
Mike Renner was one of the 28 men competing for Becca Kufrin’s heart on this year’s cycle of ABC’s The Bachelorette. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a love connection, and he was sent home in Week 4. Now, Mike answers all our questions about his time on the show.
It’s not every day that you mindlessly scroll through the list of contestants for The Bachelorette when they’re announced and realize you know one of them, but that was what happened to me about two months back, ahead of this season’s cycle.
Disclaimer — I don’t actually watch The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. No shade thrown whatsoever to those who do; I’ve been watching The Office on Netflix on a steady loop for years, so who am I to have TV opinions? But this year, I decided to tune in to watch Mike Renner, whom I’ve known for years through Twitter since we both cover football.
Mike, 27, is an analyst for Pro Football Focus. Once, in 2015, he totally came through for me in the clutch when I needed personnel formation snap counts for an article I was writing on the Green Bay Packers:
And that’s a perfect snapshot of Mike — a really nice guy. Unfortunately, however, as those who watched this season of The Bachelorette know, nice guys don’t always make for great reality television.
It’s a funny thing when you sort of know someone competing on a reality TV show. I used to work in television at the talent agency WME negotiating talent contracts, so at this point I’ve come to assume that 75 percent at least of what we see on so-called unscripted television is, in fact, scripted.
But with Mike’s turn on The Bachelorette, here was a chance to hear, directly from the source, what was real and what wasn’t about his experience. And, as it turns out, it was a lot more than you’d think.
First off, how does a football analyst from Cincinnati find himself competing on a reality dating show?
“I was truthfully a fan of the show before I went on,” Mike told me. “I had friends in the past tell me I should apply, but I never seriously thought about it until I met a friend from college at the Georgia-Notre Dame game last season who told me he had gone through casting and could put me in touch.”
I assumed that the application process for The Bachelorette would leave contestants few traces of dignity, requiring shirtless photos and tight-fitting pants, but Mike assured me that it was actually pretty straightforward. For instance — the shirt stayed on!
“I never even had anything less revealing than a T-shirt on for the entire thing,” Mike says — though he was asked to wear a “right-fitting” shirt for his meeting with the casting director. The process consisted of taking 20 professional photos, such as the one below, and filling out questionnaires until the casting team eventually flew him out to Los Angeles.
Once he was chosen, it was time to pack his bags and head off to the mansion, to find…love? Fame? A good time? I asked Mike if he really, truly went into the experience believing he might fall in love.
“I did,” he confirms. “I was obviously realistic with my expectations and didn’t think this was necessarily a better way of finding love than normal dating. At the same time, I thought it would be pretty cool to find love on national TV and a once-in-a-lifetime experience no matter what.”
Despite “quite a bit” of ribbing from his colleagues at PFF and some friends and family — “all good-natured, of course” — Mike set off with an open mind and, as anyone who watched the show remembers, decided to go big or go home on the very first night when the limos arrive at the house.
Most of the contestants arrive with some sort of gimmick — Blake, after all, presented an ox — but Mike’s was especially risky: bringing a life-sized cardboard cutout of Arie Luyendyk Jr., who selected Becca as the winner of last season’s The Bachelor before breaking up with her to pursue runner-up, Lauren.
Mike’s reasoning was sweet — so Arie could see Becca happy with other men — but the move was bold. After all, Arie’s face was probably the last thing Becca wanted to see on Night 1.
As it turns out, it was also the result of some bad advice.
“I regretted it the moment I saw the cutout,” Mike says. “I had planned on saying a little more, then knocking it over or something, but the plan went out the window with equal parts nervousness and regret. I just truthfully couldn’t think of any good ideas and so went with someone else’s suggestion.”
It’s hard to know if the specter of Arie looming over Mike and Becca’s potential relationship doomed it from the start, but unfortunately, Mike wouldn’t go on to get much of a chance with the bachelorette. He didn’t get any time with her the first night, and he estimates that, until he was eliminated in Week 4, he spent a half hour total talking to her
It likely didn’t help that not only had Becca never heard of Pro Football Focus, but she didn’t seem to be much of a football fan at all. “There was definitely something lost in translation there with her,” Mike says.
The extra layer of irony is that there were two NFL players on the show with Mike — free agent tight end Clay Harbor and former undrafted free agent tight end Colton Underwood. While that might not have excited Becca, it was certainly fun for Mike.
“Both were cool dudes and I’ve hung out with Clay since, actually,” Mike says (he sent me a photo to prove it). “After the first night we didn’t really talk football too much. Both were fairly skeptical of our ability to grade [at Pro Football Focus], but I did my best to convince them.” A company man!
So if Mike only got 30 minutes of facetime total with Becca, what was he doing the whole time he was in the mansion? I asked him for the juicy, behind-the-scenes details — only some of which he could reveal. For instance, alcohol is NOT unlimited, and yes, David really did fall out of his bunk bed to wind up in the ICU. (Mike was in the room next door and heard the crash.)
“I don’t think I can say too much about behind the scenes, but I will say alcohol is not unlimited; I got cut off one night,” Mike says. Whoops!
“I got along [with the other contestants] fairly well and avoided drama or people I didn’t like. There really didn’t seem like there was that much drama in the house, but obviously any argument in the course of a week is bound to make [it on the] air, while 10 dudes sitting around in a hot tub all day at the house isn’t going to get shown.”
Sadly, Mike and his Clay Matthews-esque locks were eliminated in Week 4, before he truly got a chance to capture Becca’s heart. It was back to Cincinnati to his bulldog, Riggins; back to his job at PFF; and back to Twitter.
The latter surprised me; Mike and I had communicated when he was still on the show and I had asked for A. an interview when all was said and done or B. an invitation to the wedding if he won. So when he popped back up on Twitter, I assumed he had been eliminated, but I had been under the impression contestants were essentially supposed to go into hiding until their elimination aired.
“I started back working and was on Twitter right when I got back,” Mike explains. “I got permission because of my job, but most people are supposed to lay low and not use social media.”
As for what comes next, Mike is looking ahead to the start of the football season and has confirmed that he will not be appearing on Bachelor in Paradise.
Oh, and ladies — Mike is currently single and still looking for love.