Colton Underwood's Real Name: Colton Underwood

Quick answer: The former football player and television personality is known professionally as Colton Underwood. Sports Illustrated and Illinois State University independently record his college career at Illinois State and later work on The Bachelor. Neither of those pages gives a longer legal name.

Real name and early life

Independent publishers identify him under the professional name Colton Underwood. Illinois State University, in a January 2019 profile, describes him as a former Redbird football player and later says he received a degree in business management in 2018. Sports Illustrated independently records four college seasons at Illinois State from 2010 to 2013, lists him as a 6-foot-4 linebacker with 215 tackles in 45 games, third in program history in tackles for loss and fourth in sacks, and a two-time finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, given to the outstanding defensive player in the FCS.

Career highlights

Sports Illustrated says he went undrafted after those four seasons, spent three years on a trio of NFL practice squads, and never appeared in an NFL game. It records Chargers and Eagles practice-squad time in 2014, later time with the Chargers and Raiders in 2015, and says his NFL career ended in August 2016 after he was cut by Oakland in training camp. Illinois State University independently says that after his collegiate career in 2014 he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the San Diego Chargers, and that he later was with the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles over the course of two seasons before retiring. Sports Illustrated, citing a June 2017 Journal Star interview, records that he said he had put in his retirement papers and had a serious shoulder issue.

Illinois State University says he reached week eight on The Bachelorette, later appeared on the fifth season of Bachelor in Paradise, and was named the newest Bachelor on September 4, 2018, for the 23rd season of the show. Sports Illustrated independently identifies Season 23 of The Bachelor and says he was the second former NFL player to appear as the Bachelor, after Jesse Palmer. Illinois State University also records that he started the Colton Underwood Legacy Foundation in 2015 to raise money for people living with cystic fibrosis.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Colton Underwood are looking for the same former Illinois State linebacker, including the television work under his name. Search traffic often uses the name Colton Underwood.