When The Bachelorette's Jason Foster stepped out of the limo night one with a fake pregnancy belly (a nod to Clare’s entrance on Juan Pablo’s season of The Bachelor), he earned the title as the comic relief and likable guy on this season of The Bachelorette. But during his first one-on-one, Jason revealed his sensitive, serious side to Clare. In between the emotional moments, Jason briefly talked about his NFL career. He didn’t elaborate too much about his sports history, and unless you're someone who studies the practice squad rosters of every NFL team, you probably need a little more info.
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Before Jason pursued his professional dreams, he played football at the University of Rhode Island. He must have been alright because he started in 37 of his 41 college games. When he was not drafted by any NFL teams in 2012, the offensive lineman signed with the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent. This was the first of three NFL teams he would be signed to, followed by the Las Vegas (then Oakland) Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But he never made it to a regular season NFL game.
And he continued to be heartbroken by NFL teams. The Colts waived him at the end of the 2012 preseason, so he left the league briefly to join the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football league. But his bad luck continued when that league folded the same year, NBC Sports reported. Still, he returned to the NFL in 2013. A Raiders press release announced his addition to the team’s practice squad. The article also lists Jason as 6 feet 3 inches tall and 300 pounds. Centers need to be big, strong guys so he weighed about 120 more pounds than he does now, which is part of what was referencing on his date with Clare.
Per the Raiders' and Buccaneers' transaction records, Jason was released from the Raiders’ practice squad on November 12, 2013 and he signed with the Buccaneers’ practice team the following month, where he spent about a year.
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According to the NFL, he blocked in a few preseason games before he was let go in August 2014. That was his final stint in the NFL, but he wasn't done with the game yet. He signed with the Canadian Football League’s BC Lions and played 18 games in 2015 which seems to be the last time he played professional football. The BC Lions press release about Jason’s contract with the team also mentions Jordan Rodgers from JoJo Fletcher’s season, who was signed to the practice roster in 2015.
As a center, Jason had to have been intimidating guys on the field, which is hard to believe, because so far on The Bachelorette he has been a lovable, goofy guy. He is clearly a favorite in the house because all the guys seemed genuinely happy for him when his name was read off the date card.
In the real world, he works in IT staffing and solutions, but his chyron on the show still mentions football rather than his current gig. But that actually makes some sense: It was a huge part of his life, and it seems, a source of past heartbreak, too.