Remove blank line that appears after every string

This program works fine but I'm having trouble removing the blank lines after every player. I've tried to use .strip but I get the error 'list' object has no attribute 'strip'

def random_player(datafile):
import random
read_mode = "r"
with open (datafile, read_mode) as read_file:
    the_line = read_file.readlines()
    print(random.choice(the_line))
    read_file.close

(random_player(file_name))
(random_player(file_name))
(random_player(file_name))
(random_player(file_name))
(random_player(file_name))

What I get:

Toney Douglas

Adonal Foyle

Nate Hawthorne

Joe Stephens

Gary Payton II

What I want:

Toney Douglas
Adonal Foyle
Nate Hawthorne
Joe Stephens
Gary Payton II