So, who actually is The Golden Bachelor lead?! Playing for the NFL wasn’t his only job
Umm, he literally answered phones for a hotline?!
Mel Owens has been named as The Golden Bachelor lead for 2025. He’s a former NFL player, but unfortunately, most of Bachelor Nation has no idea who he is. Last season, we saw Gerry leave the season with Theresa Nist, who he has since split from, but hopefully we’ll see genuinely long-lasting sparks fly this time around for Mel.
Who actually is The Golden Bachelor lead this year?
Mel Owens is The Golden Bachelor singleton this year, at the age of 66 years old. He was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the first round (ninth overall pick) of the 1981 NFL draft, after he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science. After his nine-season football career, Mel later went on to start working as a finance lawyer.
He got his license and worked as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. Mel later attended University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and was admitted to the California bar in 2003. In 2006, he became a founding partner of Namanny, Byrne & Owens in Laguna Hills, California. He specializes in workers’ compensation, sports law, sports injuries and disability benefits.
Mel, who is from Detroit but moved to Orange County, shares two sons with his first love, but sadly his former marriage came to an end at the same time his father passed. He has since focused all of his energy into being the best father he could be and coaching their extracurricular sports teams. Also, can we just mention that his bench press back at college was 390lbs?!
He played for the NFL and answered hotline calls
Mel played for the Los Angeles Rams after college, which was one of his major breakthroughs into the NFL game. He was a linebacker for nine seasons after playing college football at the University of Michigan from 1977 to 1980. However, he also had another job that you wouldn’t expect: answering calls for a hotline for some extra cash.
He operated a nationwide restaurant reservation hotline in the 1980s called 1-800-LETS-EAT. Then in 1987, he ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, in the off-season and also competed in the 1987 Los Angeles Marathon. But how did he make his way into the Rams team? Well, he made his first start against the Los Angeles Raiders in the second-to-last game of the 1982 NFL season in which he had 10 tackles.
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