Vikings wide receiver Blake Proehl is moonlighting as a musician

Right after Blake Proehl posted a video of himself singing, he immediately logged off social media.

"I'm just going to forget that the world exists right now," he told himself. "I don't want to know their reactions."

The Vikings wide receiver shared the video — a cover of the Kings of Leon song "Use Somebody" — on Instagram and TikTok in October 2021, while recovering from a season-ending ACL tear as an undrafted rookie. As difficult as the injury was, the toll the recovery took on his mental health was worse.

That's when Proehl — a three-year NFL pro — turned to music.

Confident on the football field, Proehl, a self-taught musician, was admittedly worried about how his video would be received. When he finally went back online, he was surprised to find a sea of support.

"I've been a Packer fan my whole life, but after finding your page I may need to like the Vikings a little," wrote one commenter. "I could listen to you sing forever," wrote another.

Since then, Proehl has amassed almost 600,000 TikTok followers and has released five original singles. He's currently preparing for his first headlining show on July 15 at the Fine Line in Minneapolis, just two weeks before the Vikings start training camp.

Proehl kept his interest in music in the dark for a long time. He grew up singing and dancing to pop songs, but the prospect of performing was out of the question.

"To do creative things on top of football was weird for me at a young age," he said. "I thought weird kids did music, which is not the case, obviously — I was just kind of a jock growing up."

But now, he's gotten lots of support from his teammates. Alexander Mattison, Greg Joseph and Michael Pierce were among those who posted encouraging comments. And several players said they plan to attend his show.

Former Pro Bowlers around the league, like Keenan Allen, Josh Allen and Mitchell Trubisky, showed love for Proehl, too. Teammates Cam Bynum and Janarius Robinson even joined him for a holiday cover of "Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber. Vikings wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell calls Proehl "Moonlight" because of his parallel pursuits.

"You shouldn't let other people validate how you feel about something," Proehl said. "But I think it was cool getting support from people I didn't know I'd get support from, like teammates and people whose brand is being tough."

Striking a balance

Proehl does all he can to separate his music and sports pursuits. In the offseason, he dedicates his mornings to football workouts and afternoons to studio time, writing and recording new singles. During the season, he works on music only on off days, but typically schedules out songs to work on before the season starts.

But his coaches don't always make it easy to keep music away from the field. They often ask him to sing in the locker room. At former Vikings receiver Adam Thielen's charity softball game at CHS Field in May, Proehl got the nod to sing the national anthem.

The 24-year-old has managed to keep his spot on the Vikings for two years despite the ACL tear in 2021. It may be because of his perfectionism, a drive that Proehl admits can be frustrating, but has helped him take both his music and football careers to new heights.

Aiming for a gold standard has been tougher as a musician than as an athlete, though. Proehl learned to play piano and guitar in the past few years using YouTube tutorials. And he's still learning to speak his own musical language.

"It's rare to have someone that's his age that is passionate about music, but has never really done it at all," said Zach Foty, Proehl's producer and a 15-year veteran in the local music scene. "I just remember the few days when he first came in, how blown away he was at the simplest things."

Foty and Proehl bonded over music and their shared Christian faith, something that Proehl said helped lead him to pursue music. He sees himself as not just a songwriter, but rather a spiritual vessel whose songs can help others.

"If I can heal myself through my own music and lyrics, I can probably help a lot of people who are paying attention," he said.

Proehl hopes to take his music as far as he can. He says selling out arenas and stadiums is on the bucket list.

Finding himself

Proehl speaks with an unassuming baritone voice, and jokes often about his lack of musical training. But when he's in Foty's homemade recording studio — a plywood-lined, acoustic chamber filled with natural light — his tone changes.

Foty hits the "record" button and Proehl fills the room with a syrupy, reverb-laden voice, gilded with confidence that adds sincerity to every lyric. It's there, in front of the microphone, where Proehl is able to be himself.

That authenticity is what he says makes music so valuable to him.

Proehl grew up in a football family, where there were constantly expectations to live up to. His father, Ricky, was a two-time Super Bowl champion and 17-year NFL pro, and his older brother, Austin, was a 2018 NFL draft pick, too.

"(Music) is something that came out of the blue, and it's a really pure form of me — Blake," he said. "Nobody else in my family did this. I'm always constantly being compared to my dad or my brother, and music is literally just me and myself at its core."

Proehl's family has been supportive of his music. And apparently they always have been.

When Proehl first started writing songs in 2021, his mother stumbled across one of his baby books. There, she wrote down something he said when he was 3 years old: "Music lives in me."