Former NFL quarterback Matt Leinart recalled how a blister was partially to blame for blowing his shot with Rihanna.
After going out on a couple of dates with Rihanna, 37, years ago, Leinart, 42, took the music superstar to Teddy’s nightclub inside the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
“The problem was I had this f***ing ginormous blister on my lip,” Leinart said on the Thursday, July 17, episode of his “Throwbacks” podcast. “Dude, I can’t even.”
Leinart, who was a star at the University of Southern California, explained he got the blister from being outside.
“I would get these sun blisters,” he said. “I felt like when I used to be super fat when I was little and I was afraid to take my shirt off at P.E. You know when you’re so embarrassed you’re like, ‘’Please don’t look at me.’”
Leinart said he will “never forget” the anxiety he had before leaving the house for the date.
“I don’t know who in my world was like, ‘Dude, you’re okay, bro. You’re going to be f***ing fine. You’re going to be fine,’” Leinart remembered. “I was like, ‘No, I’m f***ing not!’”
Leinart showed up, blister and all, but he admitted his mind was preoccupied inside the “dark” celebrity hotspot.
“The whole time we’re at a little table and I’m sitting across from her, I couldn’t make eye contact, dude,” Leinart told his podcast cohost, actor Jerry Ferrara.
Leinart and Rihanna — who has been dating A$AP Rocky since 2020 and shares two children with the rapper with another baby on the way — never went out on another date, but Leinart acknowledged the writing was on the wall long before Blistergate.
“The ship had sailed,” he recalled, adding, “She was like, ‘Aw, this poor kid.’”
Leinart said he received permission from his wife, Josie Loren, to tell the story on the podcast.
The couple got married in 2018 and share three children: sons Cayson, 5, and Cannon, 4 and daughter Camila, 5 months.
Leinart also shares son Cole, 18, with his ex-girlfriend Brynn Cameron.
Cole is following in his dad’s footsteps, announcing his commitment to play quarterback at Southern Methodist University last year.
In an exclusive interview with Luxury Handbag Shopping in September 2024, Matt preached about the lessons young kids, including his own, can learn from playing football.
“I played in high school, I played in college, I played at the highest level,” Leinart explained. “I saw what football did for me and what it teaches you. Football is very specific. There’s something about it. There’s something about that locker room. There’s something about 60 guys working together. There’s something about all of the things you learn that really apply to life.”
