PITTSBURGH — It looks like Ben Roethlisberger isn’t the only person Mason Rudolph is serving as a backup for these days.
While Steelers Nation has been debating whether or not the team should sign a veteran quarterback, Rudolph has been in Los Angeles during the COVID-19 crisis training and apparently breaking quarantine by stepping out with “Bachelor” star Hannah Ann Sluss.
A Thursday TMZ report showed the two on a coffee run together, which is the third time they’ve been seen in public over the past few days. While there has yet to be a concrete confirmation of whether the two are dating or just friends with a shared love of West Coast coffee, a source told TMZ that “they very much seemed lovey-dovey. He even opened her car door.”
Sluss won season 24 of “The Bachelor” and was briefly engaged to Peter Weber, that season’s bachelor. However, they quickly ended their engagement due to Weber having lingering feelings for Madison Prewett, the original 24 runner-up. In case you were wondering, Weber and Prewett no longer appear to be together.
Her other main contribution to the “Bachelor” extended universe was her participation in “champagne-gate,” a now-infamous misunderstanding with fellow season 24 contestant Kelsey Weier over an unfortunately placed bottle of champagne.
Sluss sparked rumors about her dating life earlier in April when she said she was having “just a nice little quarantine fling” with a mystery man that had already included a “FaceTime date.”
“I’ve had someone drop me off coffee,” she said at the time. “Since times are different, I guess that could be considered kind of a date.” Could Rudolph dropping off coffee to Sluss have evolved into the two of them getting caffeinated together in person?
Weirdly enough, Rudolph is not the only backup quarterback with Steelers ties with whom Sluss has been romantically linked. She was seen looking quite cozy early in March — in a pre-pandemic world — with Josh Dobbs, whom the Steelers drafted in 2017 and then traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars early in the 2019 NFL season.
Though their relationship status was also never confirmed, a photo of the two getting awfully close circulated around Reddit.
The Steelers’ front office has publicly put their faith in Rudolph as Pittsburgh’s No. 2 quarterback heading into the 2020 season. We’ll see if he can be No. 1 in Hannah Ann’s heart.
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