Wife of Carolina Panthers star named Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model

Haley Kalil, the wife of star Carolina Panthers left tackle Matt Kalil, has been chosen over thousands of contestants as one of two "rookie" models for the 2019 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

Danielle Herrington, cover model for the SI Swimsuit 2018 edition, announced Kalil's selection at the Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas during an SI Swimsuit event last weekend.

Kalil, a Minnesota native, and fellow rookie model Camille Kostek are the first models to be announced for next year’s issue.

They were part of SI's first #SISwimSearch open casting, which began in early 2017 with thousands of submissions on Instagram that were narrowed to 35.

The top 35 traveled to New York City for a photo shoot. SI Swimsuit then named a top 15, who went to Miami to debut the SI Swimsuit Swim and Active apparel lines.

That group was whittled to six finalists, who all appeared in the 2018 SI Swimsuit issue as Model Search contestants. Their photo shoot took place in Belize.

Sports Illustrated TV produced a documentary series that follows SI Swimsuit’s open casting, “SI Swim Search - The Journey to Find the Next SI Swimsuit Star.” The series is available to stream now on Amazon Channels, at https://amzn.to/2pzDEsS.

This story was originally published March 26, 2018 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Wife of Carolina Panthers star named Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model."