This season of The bachelor was packed with drama both on and off the screen. When fans of the show discovered photos of Rachael Kirkconnell attending an antebellum plantation-themed party in 2018, host Chris Harrison denied the allegations in a shocking and disappointing interview with former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay. Days later, Harrison announced that he would be temporarily stepping down from the franchise, even though most of the season had been filmed. All that remained to be shot was the traditional post-final special, After the Final Rose.
ABC has announced that the episode will be hosted by ex-linebacker and writer Emmanuel Acho of Cleveland Browns – here’s everything you need to know about the man more than ready to make the conversation The bachelor has avoided for years.
He has had a diverse career in both sports and television.
Acho, 30, began his football career at the University of Texas, where he played 48 games during his four-year career. He graduated with a degree in Sports Management in December 2011 and focused on the NFL, which was quickly drafted by the Cleveland Browns in 2012. (Acho also went back to school five years after graduation for a master’s degree in sports psychology from UT Austin.) He was a linebacker until 2015, playing for the Browns, and being on the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants practice roster exchanged.
After Acho’s football career was officially over after three years, he accepted a position as a sports analyst with the Longhorn Network in 2016, which prepared him for his later TV success. He soon appeared on ESPN2’s college football program, became one of the four “Cover Four” hosts on the Dallas Cowboys website, and appeared on the Longhorn Network Texas game day desk as an anchor. By 2020, Acho left ESPN and joined Fox Sports to host the show Speak for you that combines sport and politics in a talk show format.
He is a bestselling author and host of a popular YouTube series.
In the summer of 2020, the former soccer player started a YouTube series called in the middle of the quarantine Inconvenient conversations with a black manafter the murder of George Floyd. On November 10, 2020, Acho published a book of the same name that sold 18,000 copies in one day and became a New York Times bestseller.
Two months before his hosting announcement, Acho sat down with Bachelorette alums Mike Johnson and Bryan Abasolo on their podcast Say it out loud discuss all sorts of things, including how he declined The Bachelorette twice. He said to the hosts, “I don’t think I can do it … I was asked to continue The Bachelorettetwice. [In] 2017 and then most recently after ‘Inconvenient conversations [With a Black Man]“Acho continued,” It couldn’t be me The bachelor because I feel like people will judge me. . . You just kissed her and now you kiss her? Why are you so dirty “
He loves to give something back.
Former soccer player Acho is passionate about giving back to charity and doing medical missionary work, as shown on his Instagram. In the headline, he wrote, “I have spent the past 10 days in rural #Nigeria villages with a group of 41 American heroes. We provided approximately $ 2.2 MILLION worth of free medical care.” Acho went on to describe the experience, summarizing it as follows: “No black panther costumes in Africa, only scrubs, scalpels and real life are saved.”
