The connection between sports and country music is stronger than some may realize, and these country singers and their significant others are proof.

Most of the nine couples pictured below are also proof that sports and country music is not always a match made for life. In fact, there are more divorces than long-lasting unions.

Carrie Underwood is an obvious inclusion on this list — she and Mike Fisher are one of the genre's most popular couples — as are Jessie James Decker and husband Eric Decker, whose romance was chronicled on their E! reality series, Eric and Jessie: Game On!

Jana Kramer married a professional football player. Kimberly Perry married a pro baseball player. You'll find Nashville star Hayden Panettiere on the list with fiancé Wladimir Klitschko, along with Julianne Hough and hockey player Brooks Laich.

From a beloved NHL star to a world champion boxer, the ladies of country music have certainly found themselves some able sportsmen to call their husbands.

9 Country Stars Who Dated + Married Pro Athletes

We’re not going to say every relationship involving a country singer and a professional athlete is doomed, but the odds of true love lasting aren’t great. 

Here are nine country singer/athlete couples. Seven went to the altar, and of those seven, just three survive today. A high-profile divorce is a more common result of this kind of relationship, but for the sake of our romantic heart, we’ll admit the sample size is very, very small. 

18 Celebrity Country Couples You Probably Forgot About

Carrie Underwood is a part of this list, twice! So too is Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Dwight Yoakam. See all the celebrity country couples that once were, until they broke up.