Who Is The Bachelorette's Andrew Spencer?

With Season 17 of "The Bachelorette" nearly over, fans are eager to get to know the contestants beyond their big-screen personalities. Bachelor Nation combed through the reality show's promos and previews before the big premiere, looking for hints as to who (if anyone) managed to steal Bachelorette Katie Thurston's heart.

A couple of men in particular caught their eye. One of them was Andrew Spencer, aka Andrew S., a professional athlete — but there's more to him than just his work. In fact, fans were right to peg Spencer as a serious contender, because he made it to the final five.

According to his official contestant biography, Andrew is a pro football player competing in Vienna, Austria (via ABC). In his Instagram bio, he shared that his team is the Dacia Vikings, who are part of the American Football Club. When he's not out on the field, he's living in Chicago, working as a football coach and teacher's assistant. At 26 years old, Andrew is starting to get serious about looking for love, and he's already got big family plans as he hopes to have five kids one day. Sounds like he's thinking about starting a football team of his own!

While the ABC series is still filming in one single location instead of taking the contestants across the globe, Andrew S. helped bring international appeal to the show thanks to his time abroad. Not only does he love to show off his ability to imitate different accents from countries all over the world, he's also learned from his time in Europe that he's more interested in working to live than living to work. 

While his career is clearly important to him, he's also ready to put in the time when it comes to his love life, and there's no grand gesture too big for him to take on. It makes sense, then, that Andrew was able to impress Katie Thurston enough to form a special connection with her.

Andrew also already had an in with the franchise. According to Reality Steve, his cousin is Clay Harbor, another professional football player who appeared on Becca Kufrin's season of "The Bachelorette." In February 2020, Andrew even shared a picture of himself out and about with Clay, Dustin Kendrick from Hannah Brown's season of "The Bachelorette," and a few other friends. "My little cousin," Andrew jokingly called Clay in a 2019 post.

As reported by Us Weekly, Clay gave Andrew some tips about how to make the best of his time on the show. "I just told him to be himself, make her laugh and just go out there and have fun," Clay said.

Though Andrew S. managed to connect to Katie Thurston and was in the remaining five contestants, the pro football player got sent home in July 19's episode, via Entertainment Tonight. 

Katie gave roses to Justin, Michael A., Greg, and Blake, leaving Andrew to face a devastating blow. In tears, the pair said goodbye to each other, with Katie explaining that she had stronger feelings for the remaining four contestants. Viewers thought this was the end for Andrew, but in typical "Bachelorette" fashion, Katie confessed to a producer that she wasn't sure that she made the right decision.

As it turns out, Andrew was wondering the same thing. He showed up at Katie's room the next morning in the hopes of making his last impressions on Katie positive, and to leave a door open for the future. As he was leaving, he gave Katie a note that read, "If you change your mind... I'll be waiting." Naturally, Katie ran after him, yelling for him in the hotel lobby. When she caught up to him, she asked, "If there was a way to stay longer, would you want to? You can say no, you can say yes," (per Daily Mail). Andrew ultimately declined, explaining in a confessional, "I want my future wife to choose me and I wasn't chosen."

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Andrew S. revealed that things might not be over for him and Katie Thurston. 

"The way we kind of left, it was just kind of a bunch of questions in the air," he said. "There was a lot of love there ... I've seen the show and it's kind of tough [to watch]. At this day, at this time, I just think we need to talk. If anything, I would love to just sit down and talk with her one day, just kind of hang out and just see where her head's at."

Andrew also said that breaking up with Katie twice, first at the rose ceremony and then the next morning, was challenging emotionally. However, he did say that he is open to the possibility of continuing things with Katie after her season of "The Bachelorette" ends. 

"Obviously the first breakup was tough and then going back in and doing that thing, that was also really tough," he explained. "I just let her know like, 'Hey, I don't want to do this Bachelor process anymore. So, if you want to possibly continue this outside of that, I would definitely be open to it.' That's what I meant when I wrote that on the card." Andrew's comments left fans dying to know whether he and Katie reconnected after the finale. Though he will have to compete against four other men, anything is possible in the world of "The Bachelorette."